"There is no lake at Camp Green Lake"

Holes - by Louis Sachar

Publisher: Yearling
Copyright: 1998
Pages: 233

Awards*John Newbery Medal (1999)
*National Book Award for Young People's Literature (1998)
*Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (2000)

This book is classified as a few different genres. The genres include, Young Adult, Fiction, and Realistic Fiction. This book is really good for students from grades 5-8. It has a lot of really good meaning behind it and it has some comedy within it.

Summary

Stanley Yelnats and his family are cursed. He is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stanley gets accused for stealing shoes that he didn't steal and he is sent to a detention camp called Camp Green Lake. The philosophy at Camp Green Lake is that the bad boys have to dig a hole a day in the hot sun and will come out of it as a good boy. Stanley realizes after a while that with all the holes and digging that they are looking for something, but they aren't told what it is. Can Stanley ever find the truth about what is going on and will he ever remove the curse?

Use of the Book

I would use this book to teach students cause and effect. This book talks a lot about different events that are linked together for some reason. For example at the very beginning of the book, Stanley gets punished for grabbing a pair of shoes that hit him and he gets in trouble for the actions he takes. I would want students to fill in a cause and effect worksheet that I gave them as we were going through the book. After we finish the book, I am going to give students a project in which they have to create a board game with a partner involving the cause and effects that happened in the story. Once we are done doing that, students can play each others games and revise things on their own. They must follow the rubric that will be provided of all the things they need to include in their project. This way students can have a little bit of fun with their reading and learning of cause and effect.

                                       <3<3<3                    <3<3                         <3                        No <3

Rating System
Theme	If the theme is well developed and the message is portrayed very clearly.	The theme makes sense; however, it could be more developed.	The message is hard to find in the story and there isn’t much of a theme to go off of.	There isn’t a theme at all.
Plot	The plot is very well developed and everything flows smoothly.	The plot has a few gaps, but the story still is capable of moving along.	The plot has gaps that makes it hard to move the story along.	There is no plot in this book.
Characters	All the characters are developed well in the story.	There is more detail that could be added to the characters.	Characters are very poorly developed.	Characters aren’t developed at all.
Setting	The setting is described in detail and is necessary for the story to make sense.	The setting is described alright and still is needed to help the story make sense.	The setting is described alright, but it isn’t needed to help the story move along.	The setting provided is not necessary for the story to occur.
Illustrations	The illustrations are very detailed and help move the story along.	The illustrations are good, but don’t help the story move along.	The illustrations aren’t the best.	There are no meaningful illustrations at all.

Theme <3<3<3 - This book deserves three hearts for the theme because there are so many good messages that are portrayed throughout. Even with a few different ones, friendship, onions, and names, they all become very clear and well developed. 

Plot<3<3<3 - The plot deserves three hearts because it flows along very smoothly. It is a plot that is reasonable for students to believe that it happened even though it didn't.

Characters <3<3<3 - All of the characters are well developed and the nicknames really make it more personal for the reader. It creates connections between the characters and the stories of the lives they have.

Setting <3<3<3 - The setting is really important for the story because it is set in a desert where the weather is always hot and sunny. The plot has to be here otherwise if it is anywhere where the weather gets rough, the story wouldn't be able to move very much because the weather for hole digging would be better. 

Illustrations No <3 - This is a chapter book and their aren't any illustrations other than the title page. The title page is very kid friendly and it really pops. It makes students interested and wanting to read the book.

This is a great book and I would recommend it for every student to read at some point in their education. It is a great twist on what we think camp really is.