Holes
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize that Camp Green Lake isn't what it seems. Are the boys digging holes because the warden is looking for something? But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? It's up to Stanley to dig up the truth.
Themes & atmosphere
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What you might want to know about Holes
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Stanley Yelnats is sent to Camp Green Lake, where boys dig one five-foot hole every day in a dry lakebed. The warden says it builds character. Stanley is pretty sure she is looking for something.
Yes. Holes won the 1999 Newbery Medal and the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. It is one of the few books to win both awards in the same year.
Yes. A 2003 Disney film starring Shia LaBeouf was released, with Louis Sachar writing the screenplay. The film follows the novel closely and is widely considered one of the best book-to-film adaptations of a middle-grade novel.
Holes was written by Louis Sachar, published in 1988 by Dell Yearling.
Holes is 240 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Holes takes most readers 4 to 5 hours to finish.
Holes is a standalone novel by Louis Sachar, not part of a series.
Holes is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.