Louis Sachar Holes - First Impressions

[Flingo]

Rescued Thread When Bill has caught up with some things, please can we have the forum for this back, and then get it moved? Cheers!



Flingo 8th June 2006 11:06 PM

I thought in Bill's absense we could start a couple of threads about Holes here and have the discussion that so many people are keen to do before we forget what we want to say. It should be able to be moved once the new board is open, shouldn't it?

So what are people's first impressions? I know some people have finished it - but please remember anyone could call in here, so spoiler if necessary!

I really enjoyed Holes. My children's librarian mentor has been urging me to read this for ages but I had never got round to it, and am now really disappointed that I left it so long!

It's really clever, although it takes a bit to understand where all the threads of the story are going.

The writing is so easy to read, and you feel drawn in almost immediately. I could felt the heat of Camp Green Lake radiating out of the book - a huge acheivement!



megustaleer 8th June 2006 11:34 PM

I read it some years ago, and loved it. I really don't know why it has not been a bigger hit as a 'crossover' book. I thought that the way all those plot threads were neatly tied up was just so satisfying, and so clever!

Have just checked my reading list, and it is six years since I read it, and I can still remember quite a lot of it; it really made an impression!



katrina 9th June 2006 06:02 PM

Hey, this is my second read of this book in a year, as I had to read it at the start of my PGCE course, its a really popular keystage 3 yext. I prefered it this time around, the first time I was annoyed by it, but I can't remember why now.

Thought the writing was good, and the sense of the lake and the heat were well depicted.



Momo 9th June 2006 06:20 PM

I can well imagine that it's six years since Meg read it. My oldest son read it when he was a year younger than my youngest one is now and he is five years older. It had just come out otherwise he would have done it earlier as my younger one has.
Anyway, even though both my boys had read it, I never did so myself. Somehow it always seemed like a book for little boys. So, I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't that at all. (We even have the DVD and I never watched that either!)
I will recommend this book to anyone. It's a quick read, yet very interesting and there is a lot in this. More than last month's read.



katrina 10th June 2006 08:30 AM

I was wondering if anybody had watched the film version of the book, if I have time this week I'm going to borrow it from school and take a peak at it, I've heard its quite a good adaptation



Flingo 10th June 2006 10:45 AM

I picked it up on Wednesday, and will be watching it tomorrow.

I think we ought to have a thread about the film in this section, so that we can discuss comparisons and similarities? Whoever watches it first can start that!



megustaleer 16th June 2006 08:56 AM

belweb says on another thread that she thought the plot was full of holes! I beg to differ! The thing that I like about this book is that there are no 'holes', everything is all neatly sewn up at the end!

Admittedly a lot of the connections are contrived, but I thought that was part of the humour of the book. My reactions were along the lines of 'Well I Never!! and 'Who'd've Thought It!' , and I thought it was all very cleverly brought to a satisfying (if not necessarily satisfactory) conclusion.

I wouldn't have accepted the neat conclusion in a serious adult novel, but 'Horses for Courses', eh? And there's plenty of food for thought in there, too.

The book probably suffered from being read in the middle of reading for an Eng. Lit. degree. I'm sure it wouldn't stand comparison to the other books occupying belwebb's thoughts.



Momo 16th June 2006 01:45 PM

I don't know either what kind of holes belwebb saw in this novel. As Meg already mentions, and we all should consider this, this is a children's book. We cannot expect deep meanings that you will only understand after studying English Lit.



belwebb 16th June 2006 05:28 PM

 

 

 

'megustaleer' said:

belweb says on another thread that she thought the plot was full of holes! I beg to differ! The thing that I like about this book is that there are no 'holes', everything is all neatly sewn up at the end!

Yes, you've made some valid points. However, when you say 'contrived' I think that's the word I should have used - it was incredibly contrived, but then, like you say, I was in the middle of an English lit course!



elfstar 16th June 2006 06:38 PM

I enjoyed this book, it had a nice 'roundness' to it,there was no unhappy or unresolvesd ending for the protagonist, the characters were not as deep as they could have been but it is a childrens book and a such it was very acceptable



donnae 19th June 2006 11:17 PM

I really enjoyed this book. I loved how the story of the past was neatly interlinked with Stanley's story. Contrived maybe, but very enjoyable still. At least it ties up a lot more ends than last month's read!
 

 

I obviously should have concentrated more though when I was reading it as I felt I should have guessed the Zeroni link!

As this was a children's story, I liked the manner in which the anti-racialism was dealt with, not too heavy-handed. There were some obvious morals going on in the book, but they didn't overshadow the story.

There is a sequel to Holes called Small Steps. This follows the lives of Armpit and Xray.

Holes is a book I will be encouraging my children to read - I think they will all enjoy it. One of my daughters has watched the film and enjoyed it. Flingo, have you watched it yet?



Adrian 20th June 2006 01:50 AM

I was thinking the same thing, donnae. It's pretty obvious when you read it.



megustaleer 20th June 2006 09:34 PM

Because it is a children's book, and apparantly a straightforward account of Stanley's misadventures, perhaps there is a tendency to whiz through it without picking up the clues?

Once you know how it all fits together, of course, a lot of it was clearly hinted at in advance.

Hindsight's a wonderful thing!



Adrian 20th June 2006 09:52 PM

I certainly did that, not giving the book its due respect and racing through it. I'll have to re-read it, or maybe listen to the audio version.



Flingo 23rd June 2006 08:47 PM
 

'donnae' said:

One of my daughters has watched the film and enjoyed it. Flingo, have you watched it yet?

I did watch it - though it was really nicely done. Louis Sachar actually wrote the screenplay, which I think helped keeping it true to the book.

Recommend watching it if you enjoyed the book.

 

[megustaleer]

The film has been on TV fairly recently, and for once I remembered the time and the day correctly, and managed to watch it.

I thought it was true to the book, and enjoyed it very much.

[lifelongreader]

Hi there, megustaleer.

 

thanks for pointing this sub-forum out to me. It is a shame not more people have posted - I am doing holes with my Year 8 students at the minute and they are working really hard on a wiki which is developing nicely.

 

It is here - please feel free to have a look.

 

Re the movie, I did not enjoy it, but will watch it again with the class and see if it is better the second time.

The film has been on TV fairly recently, and for once I remembered the time and the day correctly, and managed to watch it.

I thought it was true to the book, and enjoyed it very much.

[katrina]

Hey my Year 7s are readig it at the moment, your wiki thing looks a good idea, we created an advertising campaign for a Holes dvd and book boxset and they loved that.

[lifelongreader]

Feel free to have your students post comments on the pages - use the discussion tab at the top of each page.

 

It would be great if my students could get some feedback and comments from other children reading the book - peer evaluation is great!