Andrew’s Letter Essay 3: Holes

I have recently completed reading Holes by Louis Sachar. Holes is a 233 page realistic fiction novel. I chose this book because I have read this book before. I didn’t really understand it so I read it again.

Louis Sachar is a 61 year old realistic fiction author, he attended University of California at Berkeley, to major in economics.He ran into an elementary school girl handing out flyers for a teaching position at a needed school for college credits.He accepted and helped out in a second and third grade class. After he left the school, he was inspired to write a children’s book, which led his writing career on.

Holes is probably Sachar’s most famous book. Holes is about a young boy named Stanley Yelnats, somehow he is in the wrong place at the wrong time again and again. This time, he got arrested, for “stealing” a professional sports player’s shoes, that were going to be auctioned off for charity. In court he had to decide weather to go to jail or to go to Camp Green Lake, which sounds nice, but it’s a dry land. And Stanley doesn’t know that until he gets there. The goal of Camp Green Lake was to dig holes to build character, so when you get out of camp, you don’t go back. All under the watch of The Warden. Stanley notices that they aren’t digging to only build character, they are digging to find something.

 

This passage from the book is a description about Camp Green Lake.

“The reader is probably asking, “ Why would anybody go to Camp Green Lake. Most campers weren’t given a choice. Camp Green Lake was a camp for bad boys.

If you take a bad boy, make him dig a hole in the hot sun everyday, it will turn him into a good boy

That was what some people thought.

\Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. The judge said, “You may go to jail, or you can go to Camp Green Lake.”(pg. 5)

Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to a camp before.”

This is an important passage because it sets a seen of what Camp Green Lake is like and how it will be for Stanley.

This passage is all about the bus ride to the camp.

“Stanley Yelnats was the only passenger on the bus, not counting the drive or the guard. The guard sat next to the driver with his seat turned around facing Stanley. A rifle lay across his lap.

Stanley was sitting about ten rows back, handcuffed to his armrest. His backpack lay on the seat next to him. It contained his toothbrush, toothpaste, and a box of stationery his mother had given to him. He’d promised to write her at least once a week.

He looked out the window, although there wasn’t much to see- mostly fields of hay and cotton. He was on a long bus ride to nowhere. the bus wasn’t air-conditioned, and the hot, heavy air was almost as stifling as the  handcuffs.

Stanley and his parents had tried to pretend that he was just going to camp for a while, just like rich kids do.” (pg. 6)

I liked this paragraph because it was very detailed and well written.

I liked how the author changed stories through the book, one was of the history, one was of the present.

I rated this book a 9 out of 10 because it was a very well written book and it is one of my all-time favorites. I also like how the book is very similar to the movie, which tons of movies aren’t like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter.

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3 thoughts on “Andrew’s Letter Essay 3: Holes

  1. I really liked your letter-essay. It was smart to look up more on the author to get a better understanding of the book because in the beginning you said you re-read it because it was confusing. I have read this book before but it was a long time ago so I might do the same thing you did, which is re-read it. From what I remember it was a good story.
    From Parker B.

  2. I really liked your letter essay. It was a very good idea to re-read the story because it was confusing. I read holes and thought it was hard to understand too. Maybe I will read it again. Overall this was a great essay.

    From Tyler Petrino

  3. I like how you included the video in your letter-essay, Andrew. It sort of made up for the less-than-reasonably-elaborative Reflection section of the letter-essay.

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