Week 39: Holes

This week's book:
Holes
By Louis Sachar


This week's book is Holes. I had never read this middle school classic so the hubby and I decided to read it to the kids. It seemed like it took forever to finish the book but I don't really know if it did or not. It may have been that more than half the book is just about the characters just digging holes in the desert. Like literally like it's just them digging.

If you don't know the plot of the story here is a quick synopsis. A young man who seems to have just horrible luck gets sent to a labor camp for a crime he didn't commit. He gets picked on by the other guys and the people that work at the camp. Every day they have to dig a hole that is five feet deep and five feet around. No one (except for the warden) knows why they are digging. He ends up befriending another boy and teaches him to read. There is also a backstory about the town where the work camp is. Obviously there is more to the plot but I don't want to give up the whole story.

When we finished the book we showed the kid the film adaptation. Turns out I had actually seen part of it at my in-laws at some point. I had also forgotten all the stars that are in the film. Sadly like the first time I tried to watch it, this time I fell asleep and missed the last section of the film. What I did see was cute for a kids movie.

As a whole I think it was a good book. But unlike other chapter books that we have read to the kids, I think this one was a little over their heads. There is a subplot with racist people trying to break up a biracial couple. Also I'm pretty sure one of the camper’s mom is either a drug addict or selling her body. I think I would have waited if I would have known that the kids didn't really care about the plot, but I would recommend it definitely for upper Elementary or middle school.