Holes by Louis Sachar

Louis Sachar makes this fantasy story seem realistic by the way he intertwines the elements of fantasy or supernatural, with the everyday things that are going on. The story opens with a description of Camp Green Lake, a very brief glimpse in to why anyone would go to a lake where there is no lake and moves to Stanley's arrival at the camp. The more or less mundane discussion of Stanley's problems in school, his problems with the bully, his arrest and conviction of a crime he didn't commit, and the constant failure of his father's experimenting create an atmosphere of a gritty realism. Then, in the midst of this, Stanley begins thinking about his, "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-great-grandfather." It is, a family joke. "Whenever something went wrong, they always blamed Stanley's no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-great-grandfather.

Then the realism starts being bent. Stanley meets Mr. Sir. He gets his "camp clothes." He...
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