Rating: 10/10
I really liked Holes because it was written somewhat in the same style as Gordon Korman's books. Some chapters depicted a certain time and place, and other chapters kind of just went out of the story in to a completely different setting. Yet when the story finished, you could connect all of it together in some way, so that those chapters that strayed from the story, actually made sense. The book is basically about Stanley Yelnats (notice the palindrome?) who was wrongly convicted of stealing a pair of $5,000 shoes. He is sent to Camp Green Lake, (which used to be a lake but is now dry as a desert.) It is a juvenile detention center where the rules are simple and strict. Wake up at 4:30 a.m, eat breakfast, dig a hole five feet deep and five feet across in 100 degree weather, then go back inside and live the rest of the day. The thing is, the camp directors aren't just disciplining kids, they're making them look for something. Something that's been buried there for decades. The amount of mystery and suspense makes it a great book. I also really liked that several characters had different personalities that were uncovered. For example, in the beginning, Mr Pendanski seemed like the nicest counselor ever, until he started bullying Zero, who was supposedly the dumbest kid every because he almost never spoke. Whilst Zero, who admittedly did not know how to read or write, was extremely good at math, and was able to learn to read and write in a month or two with Stanley teaching him. An extremely complex plot and all the mystery and suspense make Holes a great read. Now, happy reading!