Holes
Stanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck going back generations, so he is not too surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre. Nor is he very surprised when he is told that his daily labour at the camp is to dig a hole, five foot wide by five foot deep, and report anything that he finds in that hole. The warden claims that it is character building, but it soon becomes clear that this is a lie. It is up to Stanley to dig up the truth.
National Book Award for Young People's Literature (1998); Newbery Medal (1999); Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction (1999); Flicker Tale Children's Book Award (2000); Zilveren Zoen (2000); Nene Award (2001); Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (2000); West Australian Young Readers' Book Award (WAYRBA) for Older Readers (2001); New Mexico Land of Enchantment Award for Young Adult (2001); Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award for Junior (2001); Massachusetts Children's Book Award (2001); Grand Canyon Reader Award for Teen Book (2001); Sequoyah Book Award (2001); Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award (2002); Sunshine State Young Readers Award for Grades 3-5 and Grades 6-8 (2002)
About the Holes Series
Books in series order
- 1.Holes(1998)
- 2.Small Steps(2006)
- +Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide to Camp Greenlake(2003)
Reading age: 10+ years
This series should be read in order.
Stanley Yelnats is a kid who is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes five feet wide and five feet deep.
It doesn't take long for Stanley to realise there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake: the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous series of crime and punishment—and redemption.