Literature Help: Holes

By Students' Academy

“Holes” by Louis Sachar was first published in 1998. It is a young adult mystery comedy novel. It was a highly acclaimed book, and it won the U. S. National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in the year of its publication. It also won Newbery Medal for the year’s most distinguished contribution to American literature for children in the year 1999.

The book found its place in the reading lists of several schools and colleges in the following years. In the year 2012, it was ranked number six among all time best children’s novels in a survey that was conducted by School Library Journal.

Literature Help: Holes
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Major Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: May 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311709271

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Literature Help: Holes

Copyright

Literature Help: Holes

Students’ Academy

Copyright@2016 Students’ Academy

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Chapter One: Introduction

Holes by Louis Sachar was first published in 1998. It is a young adult mystery comedy novel. It was a highly acclaimed book, and it won the U. S. National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in the year of its publication. It also won Newbery Medal for the year’s most distinguished contribution to American literature for children in the year 1999.

The book found its place in the reading lists of several schools and colleges in the following years. In the year 2012, it was ranked number six among all time best children’s novels in a survey that was conducted by School Library Journal.

In 2003, the book was adapted as a movie and it was released in the same year by Walt Disney Pictures. The movie proved to be equally successful.

The setting of the story is highly important. Camp Green Lake is located in Texas. The place is dry now but there used to be a lake in the past. It is not a green area because there is no lake now. The place does not have trees. The only two oak trees are there and they are owned by the Warden.

Now the place is barren and parched. The sun shines directly above the people there. The environment is very hot. Now, it is a juvenile detention centre. Most of the times the inmates in that detention centre keep digging holes.

The major part of the story is between the past and present. There are several flashbacks to add to the overall effect of the story.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

The novel opens with the introduction of Stanley Yelnats IV. He is a fourteen years old, hard working boy, but he is from a very poor family. The poor is actually an allegory that refers to ‘a curse.’ In fact, the family has bad luck.

The members of the family blame that they are cursed because of Stanley’s great great grandfather, who used to steal pigs. That old man was no good according to the family.

In the present, Stanley is wrongly accused of stealing a pair of shoes. This incident adds to the boy’s adversity. Those shoes had been contributed by a baseball player, Clyde Sweet Feet Livingston, to an orphanage.

Stanley is unjustly punished for stealing the pair of shoes and as retribution he is sent to Camp Green Lake. Actually, it happens to be a juvenile imprisonment and disciplinary facility. The place is located in the middle of a sterile desert.

The inhabitants of that Camp are made to work hard. As a punishment, they are forced to dig one hole every day. The hole must be five feet wide and five feet deep. It is said that the punishment is given to build their character.

Eventually, having gone through this experience for some days, Stanley learns that they are not digging holes to build their character,

Reviews for Literature Help

[DAvid · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great outline for a great book. Read this first for you will derive a lot more enjoyment out the novel by doing so.