Holes    by Louis Sachar Order:  USA  Can Yearling, 2000 (1998) Hardcover, Paperback, Audio Read an Excerpt      Reviewed by Hilary Williamson Poor Stanley. He's overweight and from a poor family, cursed generations back by a gypsy, so that its members always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They blame their persistent bad luck on a 'no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather'. His dad says 'I learn from failure', which is just as well, since his inventions all veer away from success. Consistent with the family fortune, a pair of old smelly sneakers fall out of the sky and hit Stanley. He is convicted of stealing them and sent to Camp Green Lake, a Juvenile Correction Facility in the Texas desert. This is the antithesis of its name, a dry flat wasteland where young offenders are sent in the mistaken belief that if 'you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.' The boys dig holes, measured by their spades, seven days a week. Stanley's fellow diggers have names like Squid, X-ray, Armpit and Zero, and they call him Caveman. The boys are at risk from rattlesnake and scorpion bites, but their greatest peril comes from toxic yellow-spotted lizards and from the venomous Warden, a true villainess. Stanley befriends Zero and teaches him to read. He follows him when Zero runs away, and carries him up a mountain. This finally fulfills a promise broken by Stanley's infamous great-great-grandfather. There is a symmetry to this story, that makes it a tremendously satisfying read. Present actions complete a cycle and provide some compensation for past wrongs, including the historical ones that turned a lovely lakeside town into a wasteland and connected Caveman's family with Green Lake's outlaw schoolteacher, Kissin' Kate Barlow. Stanley Yelnats is an unlikely hero, who prevails through endurance and friendship (along with a taste for onions), and there is much more to Zero than his name suggests. Their story, Holes, is an excellent read, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1999. I highly recommend it. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Teens books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews