Holes

  Sacher, L.  (2000).  Holes.  New York: Random House.

This is a John Newbery Medal winner for the year 2000.

Stanley Yelnats had been in trouble before but never this much.  He was walking under a bridge when he was hit on the head with a pair of stinky tennis shoes.  The police found him with them and arrested him.  He was sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center located on the edge of a dried up lake bed.  Stanley had a choice, go to jail or the camp and since he had never been to camp before, he figured why not???   What he didn't know was that the warden of the camp was a mean vindictive woman and she made everyone's life miserable.  Stanley made friends with Zero, a fellow camper, who helped him dig his holes (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that each camper had to dig a 5' x 5' hole each day.)  It instantly made me wonder what was the warden looking for.  Anything found, no matter what it was, should be shown to the guards.  Stanley had found a lip stick tube and showed it to another camper who took it to the warden for a day off of work.  Zero got in trouble and ran away into the desert or across the dry lake bed.  Stanley also ran away to try to find Zero.  They almost died of thirst before finding water on top of "Big Thumb", the mountain on the other side of the lake bed.  The made it to the top of the mountain and found water and a large bed of onions.  The water and onions kept them alive for more than a week.  Then they went back to the camp to dig where Stanley had found the lip stick tube.  They found a suitcase and then the spotted lizards came out of the hole.  The warden found them with lizards all over them.  The lizards were very poisonous.  What they didn't know was that the boys didn't taste good to the lizards because of the onions.  Stanley and Zero were released into the custody of Stanley's lawyer and the suitcase had Stanley Yelnats name on it.  It had belonged to his great-grandfather.  It was stolen more than one-hundred years ago by the kissing bandit, Kate Barlow.  It was finally returned to the rightful owners.

I really liked this book.  I felt that I couldn't get enough to drink while reading it and could actually smell the peach "sploosh" that they were eating.  I guess I have a good imagination.