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Holes is a 1998 young adult novel written by Louis Sachar and first published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The book centers on Stanley Yelnats, who is sent to Camp Green Lake, a correctional boot camp in a desert in Texas, after being falsely accused of theft. The plot explores the history of the area and how the actions of several characters in the past have affected Stanley's life in the present. These interconnecting stories touch on themes such as labor, boyhood and masculinity, friendship, meaning of names, illiteracy, and elements of fairy tales. The book was both a critical and commercial success. Much of the praise for the book has centered around its complex plot, interesting characters, and representation of people of color and incarcerated youth. It won the 1998 US National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". In 2012 it was ranked number six among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal. Holes was adapted by Walt Disney Pictures as a feature film of the same name released in 2003. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, was commercially successful, and was released in conjunction with the book companion Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake. A spin-off sequel to Holes entitled Small Steps was published in 2006 and centers on one of the secondary characters in the novel, Theodore "Armpit" Johnson. Background Holes is one of forty-two books written by Louis Sachar, most of which are classified as children’s literature. The novel is categorized as young adult literature but has also been labeled as realistic fiction, a tall tale, a folk tale, a fairy tale, a children's story, a postmodern novel, detective fiction, and a historical legend. Holes is considered an outlier of all Sachar’s published books, for its complex plot, character development, and elements of teen angst and mystery. Sachar says he “never intended to write a grim story” and instead “wanted it to be fun and adventurous.” According to Sachar, he wrote Holes so that it could be “understood by a ten- or eleven-year-old kid,” but also prioritized writing to please himself. The narrative of Holes is generally linear but also resembles multi-spatial and multidirectional narratives, similar to features of postmodernism literature. Holes was inspired by Sachar’s dislike for the heat in Austin, Texas, the home state of his family. Plot Stanley Yelnats IV is wrongfully convicted of theft and is consequentially sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile corrections facility. The novel presents Stanley's story together with two other linked stories. Elya Yelnats Elya Yelnats is 15 years old and lives in Latvia. He is in love with Myra Menke, the most beautiful girl in the village. Myra's father has decided that she should marry when she turns fifteen in two months. Fifty-seven-year-old Igor Barkov offers his fattest pig to Myra's father in exchange for her hand. Elya asks his friend Madame Zeroni, an old Egyptian fortune teller with a missing foot, for help. Madame Zeroni advises Elya to go to America like her son, but when she sees his sorrow, she pities Elya and gives him a runt piglet. She tells him to carry it to the top of the mountain every day and sing a special song while it drinks from a stream that runs uphill. If he does this, his pig will be fatter than any of Igor's. Madame Zeroni says that in return, Elya must then carry her up the mountain and sing to her while she drinks from the stream. She warns him that if he does not, his family will be cursed. Elya follows Madame Zeroni's directions until the last day, when he takes a bath instead of carrying the pig up the hill. His pig and Igor's weigh exactly the same, so Myra's father lets her decide whom to marry. When Myra is unable to choose, Elya realizes Madame Zeroni was right about Myra. He tells her to marry Igor and keep his pig and, forgetting his promise to Madame Zeroni, leaves for America. He marries the kind and intelligent Sarah Miller but is continually beset by bad luck. The song that he sang to the pig becomes a lullaby passed down by his family. Kissin' Kate Barlow In the year 1888, Green Lake is a flourishing Texas lakeside village. Katherine Barlow, a European-American local schoolteacher famous for her spiced peaches, falls in love with Sam, an African-American onion farmer. She rejects the advances of Charles Walker, the richest man in town, who is nicknamed "Trout" because his feet smell like dead fish. After Katherine and Sam are seen kissing, Trout raises a mob to burn down the schoolhouse. Katherine goes to the sheriff for help; but he refuses to help her and instead demands a kiss. Katherine and Sam attempt to escape across the lake in Sam's rowboat, but Trout intercepts them with his motorboat. He shoots Sam dead and wrecks his boat, while Katherine is "rescued" against her wishes. From that day on, no rain falls upon Green Lake. Three days later, Katherine shoots and kills the sheriff. She becomes the outlaw "Kissin' Kate Barlow", so named because she leaves a red lipstick kiss on the cheeks of the men she kills. She robs Stanley Yelnats, son of Elya Yelnats, and leaves him stranded in the desert. Seventeen days later, he is rescued by hunters, but he is delirious and can only explain his survival by saying he "found refuge on God's thumb." After twenty years, Katherine retires to the ruins of Green Lake, now a hot and lifeless wasteland. Trout and his wife Linda Miller, one of Katherine's former fourth-grade students, who are now destitute since Trout's fortune dried up with the lake, encounter her and demand that she dig up her hidden loot. She refuses, telling them that they and their children and grandchildren could dig holes for the next hundred years without finding it. They try to force Katherine to lead them to the loot; rather than give up the location, Katherine instead lets herself be bitten by a highly venomous yellow-spotted lizard nearby, and dies laughing at the two, the venom taking its effect on her. Camp Green Lake Stanley Yelnats IV's family is cursed, jokingly blaming Stanley's "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" Elya for their constant misfortunes. Stanley, who is in middle school, is convicted of stealing a pair of athletic shoes that baseball player Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston had donated to a charity auction for the homeless and is sentenced to 18 months at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile corrections facility. Prisoners at Camp Green Lake are required to "build character" by digging one cylindrical hole five feet wide and five feet deep every day. The Warden allows campers a day off if they find anything "interesting". The leader of Stanley's group, a boy nicknamed X-Ray, tells Stanley to give him anything interesting he finds. Late one day, Stanley finds an empty lipstick tube with "KB.... Discover the Mr Barlow popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Mr Barlow books.