This book is not terribly difficult reading, but the content really isn't appropriate for young children. It is quite violent and, at times, sadistic. While the overall themes are friendship, loyalty, and redemption (all positive), the book contains a planned racially motivated lynching, murder by gunshot to the head, sexual harassment, torture by rattlesnake venom, child abuse, child abandonment, and one reference to being drunk on whiskey. All of these items, in one book, make it pretty dark and potentially scary for kids younger than middle school. Age appropriate readers will likely enjoy the book for its more positive messages and humor, although the ending is a bit hokey.

GREATE story, never could have imagined that ending!

This is a great book about a good kid, Stanley, who gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He gets sent to camp Green Lake, where he learns to fit in. Each day, he has to dig a hole that is 5 feet wide and 5 feet deep. After a few days, he gets tired and doesn't want to go on. Then he meets Zero, a quiet boy who digs his hole in about an hour. Stanley and Zero end up making a deal. Stanley will teach Zero to read and write if Zero will dig most of Stanley's hole. This causes problem with they other boys, but the new friends aren't bothered. They run away from the camp and find adventures of their own. To find out more about the secrets behind this book, read Holes and discover a whole new way to look at reading!

My ten year old son read this book in a little over a day and insisted I read it next. It is well-written and gripping. Although there are violent passages, it is not gruesome. I found the characters likeable and the premise intriguing. The ending, though not entirely believable, blew me away. I love when authors show where they were headed the whole time instead of just stopping.

The book Holes is a fictional story by Louis Sachar, which takes place in a desert called Camp Green Lake. The book tells the story of a young boy who gets convicted of stealing a pair of shoes. The shoes belong to a famous runner and were going to be auctioned off as a charity fundraiser. The money was going to be donated to the poor. This young boy, named Stanley Yelnats, has to go to Camp Green Lake and dig one five by five hole per day as a punishment for his crime. The pain and sacrifice that Stanley goes through to help save his best friend at the camp, Zero, shows the reader the power of mind over matter and to never give up. These are two of many themes that the reader will learn throughout this work of fiction. The item that Stanley finds at the end of the book makes up for all the pain and sacrifice he endured during his stay at Camp Green Lake. This book provides entertainment along with a lot of suspense. The problems that each of the characters face at the camp and the things they discuss while digging their holes makes it an exciting book to read. Along with being entertaining this book is very suspenseful. All of the problems that occur between the counselors and the boys makes you want to keep reading the book. The authors’ opinions in this book are very clear and decisive. I support his opinion that not all people convicted of a crime are actually guilty, as you will find out at the end of the story. His second opinion, which I also agree with, is that sometimes people under estimate how smart kids really are. They think that kids won’t be able to solve problems that they will face when in the end they could solve the problems just as well as the adults. This book could raise issues about the judicial system, how courts are run, and how they decide to convict people of certain crimes. The book called The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman relates to the opinion made by Louis Sachar in his book Holes. In The Homework Machine three kids are convicted of cheating, but the truth is only known by the person convicted. They could be convicted of something they didn’t do. A great deal of the action that occurs in this book, Holes, could teach the reader life lessons such as mind over matter or something as simple as never give up. The reader may need to listen to these messages and to use them as motivation when faced with a similar situation.