Home › Find a book › Holes
HolesLouis Sachar
Holes
by Louis Sachar
Sentenced for a theft he did not commit, Stanley is sent to a camp where boys dig a hole a day in a dried-up lake bed. Nobody says what they are digging for.
A story about children and a grown-up villain, thoughtful and wry in tone. We would put it with children of 10–12, and at a reading age of about 11 for reading alone.
Worth knowing before you buy
- Cruel adults
- Racial violence
None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.
Our take on this book
Stanley Yelnats is sent to Camp Green Lake for a crime he did not commit, and made to dig a hole five feet deep every day in a dried-up lake bed, under a warden who is clearly looking for something. Louis Sachar's novel is built like a piece of clockwork: a curse on Stanley's family, a hundred-year-old crime, a pair of stolen trainers and a jar of peaches all turn out to be the same story, and every loose thread ties off in the last chapters. It is very funny and very dry, but it does not flinch from hard things — the camp is cruel, and a strand set in the town's past turns on a lynching, handled with restraint but real weight. For a strong reader of ten to twelve it is close to perfect: a mystery that rewards attention, a hero worth rooting for, and an ending that pays off everything the book has quietly set up.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
MomoMichael Ende
Point BlancAnthony Horowitz
StormbreakerAnthony Horowitz
The Boy at the Top of the MountainJohn Boyne
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.