Holes (Newberry Medal Book) — Content Guide for Parents
Found in this book
- ViolenceSupporting
- Scary contentSupporting
- Race & cultureSupporting
- Gender rolesBriefTraditional roles
Not found
- Religion
- Profanity
- Climate
- Sexual content
- Gender & orientation
Content themes
Factual summary of themes present in this book. No opinion — just the facts.
Get the full theme breakdown in the app
Summaries and source quotes for every theme.
Download for iOSExample theme card
Religion
PRESENTContains references to prayer and church attendance. A minister character plays a supporting role in two chapters.
About this book
Stanley Yelnat's family has a history of bad luck, so he isn't too surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to a boys' juvenile detention center, Camp Green Lake. There is no lake - it has been dry for over a hundred years - and it's hardly a camp. As punishment, the boys must each dig a hole a day, five feet deep, five feet across, in the hard earth of the dried-up lake bed. The warden claims that this pointless labor builds character, but she is really using the boys to dig for loot buried by the Wild West outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow. The story of Kissin' Kate, and of a curse put on Stanley's great-great-grandfather by a one-legged gypsy, weaves a narrative puzzle that tangles and untangles, until it becomes clear that the hand of fate has been at work in the lives of the characters - and their forebears - for generations.
With this wonderfully inventive, compelling novel that is both serious and funny, Louis Sachar has written his best book to date. Holes is a 1998 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and the winner of the 1998 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the 1999 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Fiction and the 1999 Newbery Medal.
Frequently asked questions
Is Holes (Newberry Medal Book) appropriate for a 7-year-old?
Boys fistfight, a counselor is hit with a shovel, guns are fired, a Black man is shot dead in a flashback, and the outlaw's victims are shot or poisoned, though the story is mostly a mystery adventure. The book has a harsh warden, deadly lizard and snake venom, a slow painful death, and a boy walked through the desert at gunpoint, though the tone stays fairly light.
Does Holes (Newberry Medal Book) have violence?
Found (Supporting): Boys fistfight, a counselor is hit with a shovel, guns are fired, a Black man is shot dead in a flashback, and the outlaw's victims are shot or poisoned, though the story is mostly a mystery adventure.
Does Holes (Newberry Medal Book) have scary content?
Found (Supporting): The book has a harsh warden, deadly lizard and snake venom, a slow painful death, and a boy walked through the desert at gunpoint, though the tone stays fairly light.
Does Holes (Newberry Medal Book) have religion?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Holes (Newberry Medal Book) have race & culture?
Found (Supporting): A flashback tells of a white schoolteacher and a Black man in 19th-century Texas whose relationship leads to a racist mob attack and his murder, which sets off the later events.
Does Holes (Newberry Medal Book) have profanity?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Holes (Newberry Medal Book) have climate?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Holes (Newberry Medal Book) have sexual content?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Holes (Newberry Medal Book) have gender roles?
Found (Brief, Traditional roles): Camp adults use gender expectations to shame boys, telling them they are weak or humiliating them for crying.
Does Holes (Newberry Medal Book) have gender & orientation?
Not found in the sources we checked.
