Holes: A Challenged Y.A. Novel
Alexander R. Harvey
Dr. Fritz
Adolescent Literature
Due: 5th Feb. 2016
Holes is a popular novel by Louis Sachar that has won multiple awards for youth literature including the national book award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for fiction, and the Newbery Medal (McDaniel). The book has been largely popular since its publication in 1998, with a movie having been made in 2003 with a cast of fairly prominent actors. The book is typically read by young adults in the 5th 6th grade range among these age groups it’s really popular and I know quite a few people who read it in high school or middle school. The book has a sequel that did not do as well as the original entitled Small Steps. Despite the book’s relative popularity has been challenged in some grade schools for being portrayed as too violent or inappropriate for the age group.
The story revolves around the main character and protagonist Stanley Yelnats who is imprisoned for a crime that he did not commit. It is indicated that Stanley’s family is experiencing the effects of a curse. on his way home from school one day Stanley has a pair of autographed basketball shoes fall from the sky which he picks up and begins to run with. His intention is to give the shoes which smell quite badly to his father who is an inventor of sorts working on a way to rid the world of foot odor. When Stanley stands trial for the crime of stealing the autographed shoes which were part of a charity sale he is sent to the juvenile camp, Camp Green Lake, where residents work in the hot sun under the supervision of the warden digging holes that are five feet deep by five feet wide to, as the Warden says, “build character”. While at the camp Stanley encounters several characters with colorful names such as X-Ray, Armpit who is the main character in the second book in the series, and Zero. The boys bond over their shared labor and the poor treatment they received at the juvenile camp at first Stanley is largely hated by the other characters but as time goes on things change. the campus played by yellow spotted lizards which are poisonous to humans. One day Zero or Hector as he is also called attempts to escape and Stanley follows his friend into the desert that was once a lake. Upon their fleeing the camp the boys spend many days in the desert living off of wish that they found under an old boat there later climb a mountain that they called God’s thumb. Stanley carries Hector up the mountain when Hector is sick and see some onions that he finds there and give him water from the ground, unknowingly breaking the curse that is played his family for hundreds of years. after their rough time in the desert the boys go back to try to find the treasure that the warden is looking for. The boys successfully find a suitcase which the warden tries taken from them when she finds them trapped in the hole in the morning.
The book jumps back and forth between time periods throughout dealing with several different issues. The readers are given the narrative of how Stanley Yelnats his family became cursed by failing to keep a deal with a gypsy. The reader is also given the story of Green Lake come and how it became to be a desert wasteland. the switching between time periods makes for a very interesting trio of narratives which are compounded with the individual narrative of a separate characters.
The book has been accused by some of being too violent in an appropriate for the intended age group. There is a shoes of child labor and child cruelty in the way the children are treated at Camp Green Lake. While this book is not as challenging as some Y.A. Books it is still contested and some argue for it not to be allowed in school.
The book does touch on some important issues such as bullying, racism, illiteracy, homelessness / poverty, and criminal justice among adolescents. It also focuses on some more positive is areas such as friendship and loyalty. Stanley Hector and the other boys at the camp show a large degree of loyalty towards one another, and it is indicated that upon being released from the camp do to the poor conditions that they remain in contact to some degree. The readers find through a series of flashbacks that Hector, also called Zero, is actually homeless and is the one who originally stole the shoes which Stanley was arrested for. This indicated that Hector did not know what the shoes were for he only needed shoes. Homelessness and poverty are issues that are not frequently addressed in youth literature as the typical individual prefers to ignore or pretend that such things are not commonplace in our “first world country”.
In the story of how Camp Green Lake became a desert the readers are given a clear narrative of the racism in American history. In the time when Green Lake was actually a lake there was a teacher who began to date a local onion farmer. This created a complication as she was white and he was black. The town held it illegal for interracial couples to exist which was commonplace at the time. When a man from the town who desired the white woman who was a teacher at the school discovered the love affair between the onion farmer and the teacher the town came together, and killed the onion farmer’s donkey and hung the black onion farmer. The legend says that Green Lake never received any rain after that time. The teacher, seeking revenge eventually killed several of the men responsible and became a bandit known as Kissing Kate whose signature is to leave a lipstick mark on each man that she killed. What the background such as is filled with racism and murder it is easy to see what some parents might object to within the book. I however, see this as a construction of a realistic backstory that acknowledges the darker aspects of American history.
All of the youths and the book have their own problems. Armpit has his name because of his smell, Hector is called Zero because the other campers state that he has nothing in his head. Nicknames such as these indicate adolescent tendencies to focus on one negative aspect of an individual’s character. These boys come to be defined by what is seen as their shortcomings, however they embrace their new identities, indicating them assimilating into the society that they are in. The book also details the group working together to stand against the abusive rule of the Warden who has previously been shown to physically abuse the “campers”.
Works Cited
McDaniel, Kelley. “Defending Holes by Louis Sachar.” MASL IF Blog. Maine Association of School Libraries, 03 Mar. 2009. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.
Banned YA 