From: Clark Underbakke <CUnderbakk>
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 17:32:38 -0600

I found myself with the overwhelming desire to add my two cents before calling it a day...I came across HOLES this fall and devoured it page by page as many of you did. I took the chance and started it around the time that award winners are announced...hoping and praying that it would win the Newbery while we were in the thick of it...and sure enough it did! The class erupted when we checked the site for the list of winners!

It is a mesmerizing story to listen to...our student teacher, who we welcomed to the class after we were 50 pages into the book, took it home to catch up with where we were orally.

I am one of the CCBC'ers that cringes, shudders, screams from within when people name a book as being for males or females...ick! We as a human race are qucik to pidgeon hole people in an effort to understand them better...I guess. I was the little boy who was NOT playing with Tonka trucks and Hot Wheels cars...I was in my basement teaching! If only those years counted toward retirement! Anyway- that is another epistle...

The GIRLS in my room are AMAZED at that the character of the warden! She is so, so, SO nasty! Who can forget that scene of her slicing her rattler' tainted fingernails into the face of Mr. Sir. WOW! Didn't we all assume that the character would be male? I know I did when I read it the first time...c'mon, be honest!

We are also in love with Kissin' Kate Barlow...now that's a WOMAN! Granted, she did turn to a life of crime after her heart was STOMPED upon, but she was a powerful force to be reckoned with...the entire class loved how she died laughing...not telling Trout or Linda any information. An incredible ending to the first section of the book...

Pardon me for being so long winded...I must go now...I might listen to Helen Readdy's, "I Am Woman" on the way home! R-O-A-R!

Regards, Clark Underbakke 5th Grade Teacher Birmingham, Alabama clarku at mindspring.com
Received on Tue 16 Feb 1999 05:32:38 PM CST