A READING GUIDE TO Holes - Scholastic

1 Scholastic BookFilesA READING GUIDE TOHolesby Louis Sachar Monique VesciaCopyright 2003 by Scholastic 2003 by Louis SacharAll rights reserved. Published by Scholastic , Scholastic REFERENCE, Scholastic BOOKFILES, and associatedlogos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without writtenpermission of the publisher. For information regarding permission,write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataVescia, BookFiles: A READING GUIDE to Holes by Louis Sachar/by Monique : Discusses the writing, characters, plot, and themes ofthis 1999 Newbery Award winning book.

2 Includes discussionquestions and activities. Includes bibliographical references (p. ).1. Sachar, Louis, 1954 . Holes Juvenile Homeless persons in literature Juvenile Friendship in literature Juvenile Boys in literature Juvenile literature. [1. Sachar, Louis,1954 . Holes . 2. American literature History and criticism.]I. Title: A READING GUIDE to Holes by Louis Sachar. II. H6538 2003813 .54 dc2120021912290-439-46336-X1098765432103 04050607 Composition by Brad Walrod/High Text Graphics, and interior design by Red Herring DesignPrinted in the 23 First printing, July 2003 About Louis Sachar5 How HolesCame About9An Interview with Louis Sachar12 Chapter Charter: Questions to GUIDE Your Reading19 Plot: What s Happening?26 Setting/Time and Place: Where in the World Are We? 31 Themes/Layers of Meaning: Is That What It ReallyMeans?

3 35 Characters: Who Are These People, Anyway?41 Opinion: What Have Other People Thought About Holes ?48 Glossary51 Louis Sachar on Writing53 You Be the Author!55 Activities58 Related Reading62 Bibliography64 ContentsAbout Louis Sachar I want kids to think that READING canbe just as much fun and more so thanTV or video games or whatever elsethey do. Louis SacharHolestells the story of how a single event a pair ofsneakers falling out of the sky changes the course of aperson s life. Author Louis Sachar knows a thing or two aboutthat: In college he signed up for a job as a teacher s aide at anelementary school because he thought it sounded easy. As itturned out, the time Sachar spent working with the kids atHillside Elementary School in California inspired him to trywriting children s books. Now he s an award-winning author!

4 Louis Sachar (pronounced Sacker) was born in East Meadow,New York, on March 20, 1954. Sachar s mother stayed at hometo care for Louis and his older brother, Andy. Their fathercommuted to New York City to work on the seventy-eighth floorof the Empire State Building. Sachar s father sold Italian shoes,which may help explain the strange significance of footwear inthe plot of a kid, Sachar remembers trying to fit in. He played in theLittle League, ran track when he was in middle school, and was agood student. He liked READING books, especially those by E. , who wrote Charlotte s Weband Stuart Little. Sachar alsorecalls having to stay clear of the woods across the street fromhis house where the older, tougher kids liked to play. When hewas nine, his family moved west, to a town called Tustin insouthern California. Writing was always my first love, Sachar insists, but he workedat a variety of other jobs before becoming an author.

5 He even hada short but surprisingly successful career as a Fuller Brush Man,selling scrub brushes and other household items went to college at the University of California at Berkeley,where he majored in economics. He graduated in 1976. Aftercollege, Sachar worked in a sweater warehouse in Norwalk,Connecticut, and wrote at night. He continued writing even afterhe enrolled in school to become a lawyer. In fact, it was duringhis first week in law school that Sachar got the news that his firstbook, Sideways Stories from Wayside School (1978), had beenaccepted for publication. After graduating from law school,Sachar worked part-time as a lawyer for eight years while hecontinued writing children s books. He finally quit practicing lawin 1989 to become a full-time date, Sachar has published twenty-one books for children.

6 Heclearly has a gift for creating memorable characters that readerswant to hear more about. Sachar s first book, Sideways Storiesfrom Wayside School,evolved into a series of zany tales about a6school accidentally built sideways, that is, thirty stories tall withone class on each floor. Sachar has also written a series of booksfeaturing a character named Marvin Redpost, a boy who believeshe is actually a prince who was kidnapped at birth. Holes ,a morecomplex and ambitious book than Sachar s earlier works,waspublished in s editor Frances Foster has compared his success to thatof Roald Dahl, the author of charlie and the chocolate Factoryand James and the Giant Peach. Louis was discovered by thechildren who loved his books, like the Wayside stories. There arebooks which adults discover and push onto kids this wascompletely the other way around.

7 It s easy to see why the absurdhumor of a book like Sideways Stories from Wayside Schoolwould appeal to young readers: In one chapter, a smelly newstudent turns out to be a dead rat dressed in layers of overcoats!Sachar s books have won many awards. Holesearned a dozenhonors and became the first book ever to win both the NewberyMedal and the National Book Award for Young People s Literaturein the same year. The Newbery, the most prestigious prize inAmerican literature for children, is awarded annually by thechildren s librarians of the American Library Association. Anothergreat honor, the National Book Award, is presented to one bookeach year selected by the National Book Foundation as anoutstanding contribution to children s literature. Sachar receivesa lot of fan letters from readers who have enjoyed his books, andhe visits schools and bookstores all over the country where hereads and talks about his currently lives in Austin, Texas.

8 He met his wife, Carla,while visiting an elementary school where she worked as acounselor. Their daughter, Sherre, was born in 1987. Sacharenjoys playing chess, tennis, and tournament bridge. He alsolikes to ski and play guitar. He has two dogs named Tippy andLucky. They are the only company allowed in his office while heis HolesCame About It took me a year and a half to writeHoles, and nobody knew anything aboutit, not even my wife or my daughter. Louis SacharIf Louis Sachar had never moved to Texas if he had stayed onthe East Coast where he was born or in California where hewent to school there s a good chance Holesmight never havebeen written. In his acceptance speech for the Boston Globe HornBookAward, one of the many prizes he has won for the book,Sachar told the audience, Holeswas inspired by my dislike ofthe hot Texas summer.

9 Luckily, Sachar was in the right place atthe right time to dream up this award-winning tale. In contrast,the unlikely hero of the darkly humorous story seems to alwaysbe in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then again, if Stanleyhadn t walked under that freeway overpass at just the , who knows what might have happened to him? When the shoes first fell from the sky, [Stanley] rememberedthinking that destiny had struck him. Sachar spent eighteen months writing Holes ,which,coincidentally, is the length of Stanley s sentence at Camp GreenLake. Sometimes the work of bringing this wonderful story to9light seemed like hard labor to its creator: As I was writing thenovel, I identified with my main character, Stanley Yelnats, whohad to dig a hole each day, five feet deep and five feet wide, underthe blazing Texas sun. Most days I, too, felt like I was strugglingfor no apparent reason.

10 As is his practice, Sachar kept all of thedetails about the book to himself until he finished it. By notpermitting myself to talk about Holes , I was forced to write it. Thestory was growing inside me for a year and a half, and I had noother way to let it out. Every writer has his or her influences, and two books inparticular provided inspiration for this one: Kurt Vonnegut sHocus Pocusand William Goldman s The Princess Bride. AsSachar told the Austin Chronicle, I like the way the openingchapters [of Hocus Pocus] were sort of short and jumpy, and howthey led into the The Princess Bridehad thesecolorful characters and this bizarre setting, and that s sort oflikeHoles. Holeswas first published in 1998, when Sachar s daughter,Sherre, was in fourth grade. She told her father she thought theWarden, the mysterious red-haired woman in charge of CampGreen Lake, was scary.