Pages: 272
Genre: Middle Grade, Mystery
Reviewer: Casey
Let me start by saying you don't exactly need to like a certain genre to like THIS book for sure. I read this book and when I had to put it down, I couldn't wait to pick it back up again. It all starts when an 11 year old boy named Stanley Yelnats IV (Yelnats being Stanley but backwards) is walking home from school and a shoe, or a baseball clean as he understood, falls on his head as he walks under a bridge. For some reason, Stanley is arrested and asked a big question..."You may go to jail, or you may go to camp, Which do you choose?"
Stanley Yelnats IV came from a rather poor family, whose father tried to recycle shoes to make all sorts of things. This did not help the family much, and his house often smelled like rotten leather, as Stanley said. Stanley always wanted to go to a summer camp, and the judge did not specify when he asked the life-changing question, so you can conclude what he chose, all I can say is that I'd rather be sent to jail. Why was Stanley arrested? You may be thinking, but this is something that would change the surprise as you read, so that's for you to find out. Stanley also was overweight, and often got teased in school for that unfortunate reason. Teachers, students, etc. at the school would embarrass or make fun of him whenever the chance came up, so he had a rough life growing up. Find out if this may all change at the end.
Camp...How fun will it be? Will they all tease me too? What activities would we do when I get there? Many thoughts wandered his head on the lonely bus on the way to the camp in the hot, hot desert as he sat for 3 hours straight. All are answered when he arrives... Stanley may have met "friends" there, but that didn't help much in the heat that was everlasting, and the rumor that it hadn't rained in over 100years there. The part where the title is explained is here. The boys dig, and dig, and dig, five-by=five foot holes int he sand (5 feet deep), one in the morning and one in the afternoon with little water a day, and no A/C to keep cool. But there is something suspicious about the warden and what she is up to, and why? Stanley and a good and, usually quiet friend Zero decided to go to a "thumbs up" shaped mountain in search for water. Stanley did not know that his great-great grandfather that his whole family believed cursed them with all the bad things he did as an adult, had a little history there. With a few connections too...
Why did Stanley get arrested? Where was this crazy camp? Why did he and Zero go to the mountain? What was the warden's secret? And what all did his terrible great-great-grandfather do that was so bad? Al questions answered when you read this edition to Louis Sachar's amazing books. If you decide to watch the movie instead, you sure are missing a lot when you see that instead. If you do read it though, it is a good book, wait...I should say GREAT book to read when you are looking for an interesting book to make you happy, a little sad, and to cheer you up at points, get to this book however your quickest way to it whether it's an i-Pad, or the closest library. You don't know what you're missing yet!
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