Holes (Louis Sacher)

 

This is a book that I always wondered why I hadn't read it. It's a well known book and teachers think it's great....well, those who have read it. I realized though that it was only written in 1998. No wonder I didn't read it when I was in school. It wasn't around! I did finally read it for my Grade 3 book club though.

Teaching potential:
I thought it was a great book with lots of potential for talking about literacy devices. The example, dramatic irony (when the reader knows something the characters in the story do not know) or foreshadowing (why is there an entire early chapter about a killer yellow spotted lizard?) The main character, Stanley, changes over time and is able to save his family from an inter-generational curse...which is bildungsroman (a genre that focuses on intellectual/moral growth of a character from youth to adulthood)....there's a moral development or the two main characters. Stanley and Hector start addressing each other by their real names (adults?) rather than their nicknames (Caveman and Zero).

Adult themes that could  be discussed:
Poverty and class - how some people are dealt different trials in life
Race Relations
What just and reform actually entails and how it is carried out.

Book Club ideas:
Bring shovels to put at door with a sign....Welcome to Camp Green Lake
Who said it game with quotes from the book
Watch parts of the movie and discuss it - venn diagram with holes book and holes movie
Make name tags for ourselves (first name and last name with first name spelled backwards)
TPT Coloring page

Food: 

Red candies for lizard eyes
Gummy words for rattle snakes
Onion dip/chips
Sploosh - cooked peaches (in a crock pot?) or peach fruit snacks in containers

Symbols in a bag
Sign: Which "hold" will you dig into? Will you find a yellow-spotted lizard, treasure or be cursed along with the Yelnats family?"
- onion (Sam's onions)
- Kate Barlow peaches
-Yellow spotted lizard toy
-Stanley's canteen of water
-Kissin' Kate Barlow's lipstick tube
-treasure box
-letter from Stanley to his mom
-fish fossil

Signposts
There is a lot of potential for Notice and Note signposts. I kept notes of some....I'm sure there's more! 

Goodreads says:

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

The Puppets of Spelhorst (Kate DiCamillo)

 

This is a quick read, but I'm not sure it'll be a hit with students. It could make for a good study though because it appears there is some amazing symbolism in there somewhere where I haven't quite gone yet. It's subtitled, A Norendy Tale, and in the bookjacket it references two more books....so maybe there is more to come to help me understand this story? In the beginning of the story the puppets are bought by the sea captain who spends all his time, and eventually dies in bed. In the end, Jane Twiddum takes the puppets to go find her lost love. Was her lost love the sea captain? Was he writing to someone else (she did have the letter) or did we just go full circle?

I need someone with more time than me to help me discuss this book and figure it out. Candlewick press has a bunch of really interesting questions. Perhaps this is meant as a middle school novel, similar to The Little Prince. 

Goodreads says:

From master storyteller Kate DiCamillo comes an original fairy tale—with enchanting illustrations by Julie Morstad—in which five puppets confront circumstances beyond their control with patience, cunning, and high spirits.

Shut up in a trunk by a taciturn old sea captain with a secret, five friends—a king, a wolf, a girl, a boy, and an owl—bicker, boast, and comfort one another in the dark. Individually, they dream of song and light, freedom and flight, purpose and glory, but they all agree they are part of a larger story, bound each to each by chance, bonded by the heart’s mysteries. When at last their shared fate arrives, landing them on a mantel in a blue room in the home of two little girls, the truth is more astonishing than any of them could have imagined. A beloved author of modern classics draws on her most moving themes with humor, heart, and wisdom in the first of the Norendy Tales, a projected trio of novellas linked by place and mood, each illustrated in black and white by a different virtuoso illustrator. A magical and beautifully packaged gift volume designed to be read aloud and shared, The Puppets of Spelhorst is a tale that soothes and strengthens us on our journey, leading us through whatever dark forest we find ourselves in.

The Magician's Nephew (C.S. Lewis)

 

Since I claim to be a reader, I probably should have read this before now. Alas, this was my first time. I plan to read the entire series. I have read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe before but not the ones that follow. This book explains how the wardrobe became magical. There are a number of interesting connections and symbolism connected to Biblical stories.

I gave it a 5 on GoodReads because who am I to give CS Lewis anything less? I am not sure many of my students would ever enjoy it. It would be a stretch for them and that is usually the reason I read most Children's Lit books. Maybe I need to expand my purpose in reading though.

Narrator, explaining what happened to the uncle when all the animals started surrounding them: For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are. (p. 136....chapter 10)  

Digory and the Witch (who represents evil):

"Foolish boy," said the Witch.  "Why do you run from me? I mean you no harm. If you do not stop and listen to me now, you will some some knowledge that would have made you happy all your life." (p. 175 ...chapter 13)

"What has the Lion ever done for you that you should be his slave?" said the Witch. "What can he do to you once you are back in your own world? And what would your Mother think if he knew that you could have taken her pain away and given her back her life and saved your Father's heart from being broken, and that you wouldn't - that you'd rather run messages for a wild animal in a strange world that is no business of yours?" (p. 176 ...chapter 13)

Why friends matter: The meanness of the suggestions that he should leave Polly behind suddenly made all the other things the Witch had been saying to him sound false and hollow. And even in the midst of all his misery, his head suddenly cleared, and he said (in a different and much louder voice): 
"Look here; where do you come into all this? Why are you so precious and fond of my Mother all of a sudden? What's it got to do with you? What's your game? (Digory to the Witch)

later, she continues to try to create a sense of urgency to follow her:
"Go then, Fools," called the Witch. "Think of me, Boy, when you lie old and weak and dying, and remember how you threw away the chance of endless youth! It won't be offered you again." (p. 178 ...chapter 13)

On seeing people's beauty on the inside:
All the sharpness and cunning and quarrelsomeness which he had picked up as a London cabby seemed to have been washed away, and the courage and kindness which he had always had were easier to see. Perhaps it was the air of the young world that had done it, or talking with Aslan, or both. (p. 181 chapter 14 the cabby and his wife once they're made King and Queen of Narnia)

On the fruit from the tree:

Aslan: That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way. The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after.
"Oh I see," said Polly. "And I suppose because she took it in the wrong way it won't work for her. I mean it won't make her always young and all that?"
"Alas, said Aslan, shaking his head. "It will. Things always work according to their nature. She has won her heart's desire; she has un-wearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it."  (p. 190 ...chapter 14)

Goodreads says:

When Digory and Polly are tricked by Digory's peculiar Uncle Andrew into becoming part of an experiment, they set off on the adventure of a lifetime. What happens to the children when they touch Uncle Andrew's magic rings is far beyond anything even the old magician could have imagined.

Hurtled into the Wood between the Worlds, the children soon find that they can enter many worlds through the mysterious pools there. In one world they encounter the evil Queen Jadis, who wreaks havoc in the streets of London when she is accidentally brought back with them. When they finally manage to pull her out of London, unintentionally taking along Uncle Andrew and a coachman with his horse, they find themselves in what will come to be known as the land of Narnia.