CCBC-Net Archives
Holes
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 13:53:08 -0600
Interesting question, Steven (re: fantasy elements in "Holes.") When Megan Schliesman and I discussed the book with 3rd-5th graders in January, one of the reasons they gave for liking the book so much was: "Because it couldn't really happen." We asked them what some of the early clues were that led them to believe it wasn't real. Here are the responses I remember: 1) The coincidences and how everything fits together so neatly 2) The tennis shoes that fall from the sky 3) Stanley Yelnats (name is a palindrome) 4) The Camp Green Lake setting 5) The fact that a lake would completely dry up in 100 years.
I would add to that the over-the-top characterizations, the poison nail polish, the onion antidote, and the boys' super-human strength (ability to dig a 5x5' hole every day and Stanley's ability to carry Zero up a mountain), along with the curse which you've already mentioned.
The other things the kids said they loved about the book were: the humor, the complexity of the plot, and the fact that it was written in third person (made it easier for them to follow).
Overall, I think this group of young readers were saying they were relieved to read something other than bleak social realism for a change!
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at facstaff.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Can someone explain the fantasy elements of "Holes" that have been mentioned a few times? I've read it twice and apparently missed something important. Yes, there are coincidences and unlikely events, plus a very effective curse, but isn't everything in the book really possible in the world as we know it? That was one of the joys of the book to me, the way everything fit together without any
"magic" beyond that of a very clever storyteller. And speaking of the storyteller, I always thought Louis Sachar was a good candidate for "least likely to win a Newbery Award" until
"Holes." His Wayside books are uniquely funny, and I've enjoyed some of his more serious books for older readers, but never dreamed he had a book like this in him. It's another way his book is similar to Spinelli's "Maniac Magee," which also seemed like a huge leap from what he'd written up till then.
---------------------------------------------------------Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library 1595 Burns Street West Linn, OR 97068 phone: 503e6x57 fax: 503e6'46 e-mail: steven at westlinn.lib.or.us
---------------------------------------------------------
Received on Wed 17 Feb 1999 01:53:08 PM CST
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 13:53:08 -0600
Interesting question, Steven (re: fantasy elements in "Holes.") When Megan Schliesman and I discussed the book with 3rd-5th graders in January, one of the reasons they gave for liking the book so much was: "Because it couldn't really happen." We asked them what some of the early clues were that led them to believe it wasn't real. Here are the responses I remember: 1) The coincidences and how everything fits together so neatly 2) The tennis shoes that fall from the sky 3) Stanley Yelnats (name is a palindrome) 4) The Camp Green Lake setting 5) The fact that a lake would completely dry up in 100 years.
I would add to that the over-the-top characterizations, the poison nail polish, the onion antidote, and the boys' super-human strength (ability to dig a 5x5' hole every day and Stanley's ability to carry Zero up a mountain), along with the curse which you've already mentioned.
The other things the kids said they loved about the book were: the humor, the complexity of the plot, and the fact that it was written in third person (made it easier for them to follow).
Overall, I think this group of young readers were saying they were relieved to read something other than bleak social realism for a change!
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at facstaff.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Can someone explain the fantasy elements of "Holes" that have been mentioned a few times? I've read it twice and apparently missed something important. Yes, there are coincidences and unlikely events, plus a very effective curse, but isn't everything in the book really possible in the world as we know it? That was one of the joys of the book to me, the way everything fit together without any
"magic" beyond that of a very clever storyteller. And speaking of the storyteller, I always thought Louis Sachar was a good candidate for "least likely to win a Newbery Award" until
"Holes." His Wayside books are uniquely funny, and I've enjoyed some of his more serious books for older readers, but never dreamed he had a book like this in him. It's another way his book is similar to Spinelli's "Maniac Magee," which also seemed like a huge leap from what he'd written up till then.
---------------------------------------------------------Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library 1595 Burns Street West Linn, OR 97068 phone: 503e6x57 fax: 503e6'46 e-mail: steven at westlinn.lib.or.us
---------------------------------------------------------
Received on Wed 17 Feb 1999 01:53:08 PM CST
