Reader Response

Reader response

      The book I am responding to is the book Holes by Louis sachar. I have read 240 pages out of 240.The text is a fiction novel.

          The main characters are Stanley Yelnats, a boy named Zero and the Warden. The genre of this text is realistic-fiction. The setting is Camp green lake. The conflict of the story is that Stanley got sent to a camp because he was arrested for a crime he didn’t even do which was stealing shoes that belonged to someone famous. The climax of the book for me was when Stanley and Zero were in a hole with a yellow spotted lizard (a very dangerous lizard with a big bite). The protagonist of the story is Stanley and the antagonist is the Warden and Mr. Sir.

Retell

          The title of this text says to me that the book has something to do with holes or the characters in the book are digging holes for something like water, treasure or even buildings. The author got me really interested when Zero hit one of the counsellor’s face and ran away. It got me interested because Stanley started to worry about Zero and thought that he couldn’t survive in the scorching sun. Stanley decided to take one of the water trucks that Mr. Sir has and tries to drive away. He got stuck in one of the holes and decided to walk and look for Zero which is why I started to get interested in that part. The character I admire the most is Zero. I admire him because he can’t read or write and everyone makes fun of him for that but he tries his hardest to learn how to when Stanley tries to teach him to. The kids in there group gave the nickname Zero to him because he couldn’t read or write. Zero never gave up even thou he ran away and hit a counsellor in the face with a shovel. The setting of this text is important because the Warden was looking for a treasure that can easily get her rich. The treasure was named by someone named Kissin’ Kate Barlow. She was named that because if she kissed someone she was going to kill them. She hid the treasure 5 feet underground which is why The Warden is making kids dig 5 feet in the ground to find the treasure.

         

Relate:

          If I could be any character in this text I would be either Stanley. I’d pick Stanley because he is a very nice person and he likes to help people. He would also be a really good friend because after Zero ran away Stanley was worried that he was going to die and he decided to take a water truck and go look for him. Stanley also helped Zero learn how to read and write. He also never made fun of anyone but everyone else in the group did. If I could talk to one of the characters it would be the Warden because she knew that making kids do her dirty work was illegal. I can understand that she wouldn’t want to dig thousands of holes but she shouldn’t have done something illegal to get the money. The money seemed to have got to her head. This text makes me think about child labour because they are forcing kids to work. This is also a bit different from child labour. I think it is worst then child labour because the kids in child labour are being forced to work for a reason like paying off a debt that their parents never did. In the book the kids are forced to work illegally for no reason just to get the Warden treasure which the kids didn’t even know about. The kids think they are doing that just to build respect or personality.

Reflect:

       I thought this text was realistic because people are being forced to work in a lot of places in the world today. Some in child labour, some as slaves etc. It also has a crazy person in it(The Warden) which will do anything for money like doing something illegal for it. I liked the part of the text when Stanley was trying to teach Zero how to read and write because everyone else in their group was making fun of him for that. It shows how some people really want to know how to read or write even thou they never got the chance to get an education. I think this is an effective piece of writing because it showed kids what can happen in the real world like forcing kids to work or what people would do to get money. It shows that in a way that kids would want to read it like a funny way instead of a gruesome bad way that might bore or frighten the reader. I would recommend this book to a lot of people because of its emotional moments and humour. It also is very fun to read and very interesting book with a good story to it. This book is a very realistic book and I had a good time reading it.

By: Brandon Peters