Assignment 2 Kim MacDougall

The book Holes by Louis Sachar is an example of a “good” children’s literature book. Holes won several awards including the Newberry Medal in 1999. It is a middle grades appropriate book and has also been turned into a movie loved by people of all ages. In the story, Stanley Yelnats is accused of stealing a pair of sneakers. He has a choice of going to jail or to Camp Green Lake to “build character.” The kids at Camp Green Lake are required to spend their day digging holes 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide. The boys realize that the reason they are digging holes is because the warden is searching for something. Stanley begins to search for the real reason why they are digging holes and in the end, fate is on his side as well as his family and friends.

Through classroom discussions as well as reading in the Children’s Literature textbook, I have become insightful as to what qualifies a book as “good.” A good book expands awareness. The novel Holes is set in the American West during the 19th century. Holes can fall under the genre of Historical Fiction which expands the awareness of readers to a different time period and setting than they may be familiar with. A good book provides an enjoyable read that doesn’t overly teach or moralize. In Holes, the kids at Camp Green Lake are “building character.” Though this is stressed in the beginning, as a reader I never got the feeling that the book was about character building. Sachar does a great job of tying in many different life lessons that teach throughout the book and there is never a sense of over moralization. A good book tells the truth. The character of Stanley Yelnats is a very realistic one. The boys at the camp are delinquent children and Sachar does an excellent job of making these characters true to life. A good book embodies quality. The plot is convincing in the novel Holes. The characters are very believable and the description in the book is very telling and appropriate. A good book has integrity. Sachar ties together the genre, plot, language, characters, style, and theme. All aspects of Holes help to create a book of integrity. A good book shows originality. Louis Sachar began Holes by writing about Camp Green Lake. The character development of Stanley Yelnats came later on. This shows originality in how the book was written in that unlike Sachars other books that have all started with the development of characters.