Book Review "Holes" by Louis Sachar

"Holes" by Louis Sachar is a modern fable about lost love, hate, racism, a thoughtless juvenile crminal justice system and above all else redemption. Hard luck teenager Stanley Yelnats is wrongfully convicted of stealing a pair of shoes and is sentenced to a juvenile detention work camp ironically called "Camp Green Lake". There is no lake at Camp Green Lake only a vast dry lake bed where the unfortunate young convicts dig holes day after day. Stanley believes the digging is just cruel punishment until he finds an object from the past and begins to unravel the mystery of  Camp Green Lake and his own family history. "Holes" contains the central element of a good fable:In the end, goodness triumphs over evil. There are few such happy endings in our current juvenile justice system.