The book “holes” is written by the well known American writer Louis Sachar, who now lives in Texas with his family and his two dogs. Louis Sachar was born in New York, and then at the age of nine he moved to California with his parents, where he went to college at the University of California at Berkeley and graduated as an economics major. After he graduated college, he wrote his first book, “Sideway Stories from Wayside School”. He was fired from the job he had at a sweater factory, so he decided to study law. While he was in Law School, his first book was published. After graduating Law school, he practiced law for eight years, while he also tried to keep writing children’s books. Then his books began to sell well, so he quit practicing law and became a fulltime writer.

This book is about Stanley Yelnats who has been convicted for a crime he did not commit, and been sent to Camp green lake; a juvenile detention center for boys which is situated in a dried out lake in Texas. Stanley was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Yelnats got a history of bad luck, just because of his no good pig stealing-great great grandfather. However, that is another story. In this book, there are three stories, one main story and two retrospective stories that explain incidences in the main story. Like why the Yelnats has a history of bad luck. And why the boys at Camp Green Lake have to dig a holes. And how the biggest lake in Texas got dried out.

At Camp Green Lake, the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. The warden is a very extreme woman, almost unbelievably extreme. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the terrifying warden is searching for something, and after a while Stanley and Hector Zeroni, one of the boys at the camp, begin their own search for the truth. On a way the camp was kind of character building, because the camp changed Stanley, both physically and mentally. He got a much better self-esteem, and he finally got friends.

I think the theme in this book is destiny. The presence and the past of the three stories have an association. Destiny conspires to resolve it all, the family curse, the mystery of the holes, the drought that destroyed Green Lake. In the end of the book you can see that everything got a connection. The main characters, the plot and the setting, it all got an invisible bond which ties them together.

I will definitely recommend this novel. This book is humorous, exciting and ironic, and since it’s and it’s very legible, I think it’s most suitable for children between 10 and 14. But of course, it’s a good book for adults as well as children.