"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.

"What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.

Uglies - by Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse 

Copyright: 2005

Pages: 425

This book has received the following awards:

Best Books for Young Adults - 2006
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best for Teens, 2005 Kirkus Editor's Choice, 2005 New York Public Library's "Books for the Teen Age", 2005 School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2005Texas Lone Star Reading List, 2006-2007 VOYA's Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers, 2005 YALSA Best Books For Young Adults, 2006YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2006 YALSA Quick Picks Nominee, 2006

This book has a grade level interest and reading from 9-12. It is classified as a young adult fiction book, science fiction, and fantasy novel.
There are three other books in the series. The order that these books take are Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras.

Summary

In this world, when children become sixteen they can get an operation the repels ugliness and makes you pretty. In doing this, it takes you to a place where having fun is the only job. Tally is a young girl who loves to take risks, play pranks, and enjoys hover boarding. She meets another girl, Shay, who enjoys these hobbies as well. Tally learns that maybe the other side of the pretty world would be more fun and riskier. Will she choose to be a "pretty" or take the riskier side to life. 

Usage of Book

The one way that I would use this book within the classroom would be to show students the difference in societies thoughts about looks. Looks may matter to some people, but they don't need to worry what others think. There should be only a few people that matter and those people should love and respect your for your looks. Surgery should not be needed for someone to look or feel pretty. Explaining and showing the main theme of the book and having students feel confident in their own skin is going to be a main idea when using this book within the classroom.

Below is the rating system that I have completed for this book:

                                        <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 - I gave the theme(s) of this book three hearts because they all are developed well and continue throughout the book to add to the story of it. Appearance is a main theme that can be seen throughout the book and the different sides that go along with it; being a "pretty" or not undergoing to surgery. Other themes that are found throughout this book are friendship, society and class, betrayal, identity, coming of age, technology and modernization, and freedom.

Plot: <3 <3 <3 - I gave the plot of this book three hearts because I thought the plot was well developed and had plenty of details to keep the story going. Other than being in the future, the story line of the book was very believable and easy to follow. There weren't any places in the plot that were confusing or hard to understand. 

Characters: <3 <3 <3 - I really enjoyed the characters in this book and how they were described. The actions that they took didn't contradict the descriptions of them or the way that they communicated with others. They definitely added to the story and made things much more interesting. The choices that they made were also very in tune with the personalities that they had. They were very well thought out characters!

Setting: <3 <3 - I gave the setting in this book two hearts out of three because I thought that the setting was described alright but I believe it could have been enhanced a little more. I thought that since it was set into the future that more futuristic buildings/ideas could have been added into the setting. The setting that was described did help make the story move along but I thought it could have had more added to it.

Illustrations: No <3 - There were no illustrations in this book as it was a chapter book; however, the way everything was described gave good imagery to create personal images. 

This book was a really good and interesting read. I would recommend it to people who like science fiction and fantasy books!