The Final Analysis

Louis Sachar

     

Now as long as the story is over, i have to analyse the book for you. The writer of this book Louis Sachar, is a well known writer in the USA. Actually he won the 1998 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. So who am I to critisize him? But i would only like to say my opinion towards him and his stlye of writing. As i have written before this was the best English book i have read so far. The writing style of Mr. Sachar is especially good. The story is ongoing and i haven't got bored as i was reading the book. The choice of words, made by Louis Sachar is also very good. Some words are chosen just so correctly that even if you change one of them the whole story would be non-sense. And there are some classic stories, which you can predict the ending as soon as you read the first chapter or so. This was deffinetly NOT one of them. This story made me wonder what would happen next, therefore i couldn't stop reading it.  Also there was a message that the author tried to give. But it wouldn't be right when i just wrote that message here. Everyone should read the book, than decide what the message was on his/her own. All i can say is that "I got the message. Did you?..."
(248 words)

   

I got the message. Did you?...

Analysing the characters...

Zero and Stanley cutting out the deal

Today i'm going to write about the relationship (how it began, developed and how is it now) between Stanley (or should i say caveman?) and Zero. They first met when Stanley came to Camp Green Lake after he was sentenced there for one and a half year. Zero arrived there shortly before Stanley. Zero was an unsociable kind of person and because of that he didn't have any friends there. But when Stanley got to the camp, Zero felt a little sorry for him because Stanley was here because of a  crime that he had commited, not Stanley. This was the beggining of a close friendship. As the days passed Stanley began to teach Zero how to read and write. In exchange Zero dug part of his hole everyday. But however, this seemed to bother the other kids. One day Zigzag started a fight with Stanley. Zigzag was beating him when Zero came to the rescue. He started choking Zigzag so he had to stop.165 After some discussions following the event Zero ran away from the camp. But Stanley and Zero had become so close friends at that time, Stanley couldn't just leave him alone in the dessert. He also ran away after a few days to find Zero. He found him under a boat and lead him to a place where he called "God's tumb." There they survived by eating onions for more than a week. During their voyage Stanley carried Zero up the hill which would release the curse on the Yelnats family. (Because Zero was a descendant of Madame Zeroni) After saving each others lives they had become even more closer. At the end of the book, they were all together when they were celebrating Stanley Yelnats's (the 3rd) invention. And thanks to Stanley's (the 4th) great grandfather's treasure Zero could finally find his mother.
(308 words)

God's thumb

   

I know it from somewhere (!)

In the book it said that Stanley had never been to a camp before. So that he chose going to Camp Green Lake instead of going to prison. "Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. The judge said, "You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake." Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to a camp before." (p.9  l.18-20 ) As I read through the pages of the book, I remembered my childhood. It was my first summer camp. Actually it was a sports camp but still I had to go to a mountain for two weeks and do training there. The difference between Stanley and me is that he didn't know what kind of camp he was going to. He only heard summer camps from his friends. "The camps" that he heard about were camps for fun. The children played games there and did many other activities. But I knew where I was going and what I was going to do there. Still  it felt strange (and a bit of scary) being away from home for two weeks.  But I made new friends there (just like Stanley did) and had much of a fun. Also in our camp there was no hierarchy so everyone was equal.
(212 words)
  

My First Impressions

Hello Guys,

I want to start writing my blog, writing my first impressions about the book "Holes". (by Louis Sachar) When I first started reading the book, I understood that finally we were given an enjoyable book to read, by one of the teachers. Before this one, our books were usually boring so we were not very happy reading them as homework. But only this time it was different.

When I read about Stanley and that he never went to a camp before, I thought about my first summer camp and how I felt. Being away from my family for two weeks (two looooooong weeks!) made me feel scary at the beginning but I remember getting used to it on the second day.

I felt a bit sorry for Stanley when I read that he was going to Camp Green Lake for a crime he didn't commit. But then as I kept reading I understood that if it didn't happen, the story wouldn't exist, (don't have to be a genious to understand that) so I stopped being sorry for him. Also there were questions in my mind that I would like to learn the answers in the following chapters of the book. Here are the questions:

1-was there really a curse on the Yelnats family because of Stanley's (the 4th) no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather?

2-What was waiting for Stanley at Camp Green Lake?

3-Would Stanley be able to survive there?

4-Why were the yellow-spotted lizards more dangerous than the rattlesnakes?

5-How did they treat the kids at Camp Green Lake?

(265 words)

By the way, here are some of the covers of the books that have been published so far: