Louis Sachar
Author of Holes
About the Author
Louis Sachar was born in East Meadow, New York on March 20, 1954. He attended the University of California, at Berkeley. During his senior year, he helped out at Hillside Elementary School. It was his experience there that led to his first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, written in show more 1976. After college, he worked for a while in a sweater warehouse in Norwalk, Connecticut before attending Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, where he graduated in 1980. Sideways Stories from Wayside School was accepted for publication during his first week of law school. He worked part-time as a lawyer for eight years before becoming a full-time writer in 1989. His other works include There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, the Marvin Redpost books, Fuzzy Mud, and Holes, which won the 1999 Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and was made into a major motion picture. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Louis Sachar
The Wayside School Collection: Sideway Stories from Wayside School, Wayside School is Falling Down, Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger (1998) 367 copies, 9 reviews
Why Pick In Me? (copy 1) 2 copies
WAYSIDE SCHOOL 2 copies
A Package for Mrs. Jewls 1 copy
Löcher - einfacher Lesen 1 copy
Alone In His Teachers House 1 copy
Associated Works
The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales (2011) — Contributor — 977 copies, 48 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Sachar, Louis
- Birthdate
- 1954-03-20
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Antioch College
University of California, Berkeley (BA ∙ Economics ∙ 1976)
University of California, Hastings College of Law (JD ∙ 1980) - Occupations
- young adult fiction writer
- Organizations
- Authors Guild
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators - Short biography
- Louis Sachar (born March 20, 1954) is an American young-adult mystery-comedy author. He is best known for the Wayside School series and the novel Holes.
Holes won the 1998 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". In 2013, it was ranked sixth among all children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal.
After graduating from Tustin high school, Sachar attended Antioch College for a semester before transferring to University of California, Berkeley, during which time he began helping at an elementary school in return for 3 college credits. Sachar later recalled,
I thought it over and decided it was a pretty good deal. College credits, no homework, no term papers, no tests, all I had to do was help out in a second/third grade class at Hillside Elementary School. Besides helping out in a classroom, I also became the Noontime Supervisor, or "Louis the Yard Teacher" as I was known to the kids. It became my favorite college class, and a life changing experience.
Sachar graduated from UC Berkeley in 1976 with a degree in Economics, and began working on Sideways Stories From Wayside School, a children's book set at an elementary school with supernatural elements. Although the book's students were named after children from Hillside and there is a presumably autobiographical character named "Louis the Yard Teacher," Sachar has said that he draws very little from personal experience, explaining that ". ... my personal experiences are kind of boring. I have to make up what I put in my books."
Sachar wrote the book at night over the course of nine months, during which he worked during the day in a Connecticut sweater warehouse. After being fired from the warehouse, Sachar decided to go to law school, around which time Sideways Stories From Wayside School was accepted for publication. The book was released in 1978; though it was not widely distributed and subsequently did not sell very well, Sachar began to accumulate a fan base among young readers. Sachar graduated from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1980 and did part-time legal work while continuing to write children's books. By 1989, his books were selling well enough that Sachar was able to begin writing full-time.
Sachar married Carla Askew, an elementary school counselor, in 1985. They live in Austin, Texas, and have a daughter, Sherre, born January 19, 1987. Sachar has mentioned both his wife and daughter in his books; Carla was the inspiration for the counselor in There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom (1988), and Stanley's lawyer in Holes.
When asked about whether he thought children have changed over the years, Sachar responded: "I've actually been writing since 1976, and my first book is still in print and doing very well."
On April 18, 2003, the Walt Disney film adaptation of Holes was released, which earned $71.4 million worldwide. Sachar himself wrote the film's screenplay. On November 19, 2005, the Wayside School series was adapted into a special, two years later becoming a TV show with two seasons. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- East Meadow, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Tustin, California, USA
Austin, Texas, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Discussions
Holes, Louis Sachar in World Reading Circle (June 2013)
Reviews
Stanley Yelnats is a bit of a loser, and most kids can identify with that feeling. Where many books have ten-year-olds dealing with bullies at their school, Holes places Stanley at a cruel labor camp for juvenile delinquents. Through a series of bizarre coincidences, Stanley learns to have confidence in himself by learning to deal with his unfortunate circumstances and rises above them. This coming-of-age story includes curses and wild-west lore, but manages to address major themes like the show more struggles of poverty and the American Dream; and it does so without seeming preachy, long-suffering, or patronizing. This quality is what makes it such a good book for a pre-teen: it is a wonderful introduction to the world of literature.
Holes is one of a few formative books that influenced the way I saw the world. I read it first when I was ten or eleven years old, and I was drawn in by the imagery of the desert, particularly the "thumb of God" where Stanley and Zero find water and onions. At that time, my favorite books were ghost stories, fantasy, and Harry Potter, so I wasn't sure what I would think of a story about a boy sent out to Texas to dig holes, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I will always recommend this book to kids. show less
Holes is one of a few formative books that influenced the way I saw the world. I read it first when I was ten or eleven years old, and I was drawn in by the imagery of the desert, particularly the "thumb of God" where Stanley and Zero find water and onions. At that time, my favorite books were ghost stories, fantasy, and Harry Potter, so I wasn't sure what I would think of a story about a boy sent out to Texas to dig holes, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I will always recommend this book to kids. show less
Louis Sachar once again confirms to me why he is one of my favourite authors ! Fuzzy Mud is an absolute treat with super strong character development; especially in regard to the main ones of Tamaya and Marshall and a suspense filled plot that keeps you guessing right until the end. This is a cautionary tale for us all on so many levels. On a world scale there is overpopulation, our need for fuel and the dangers of unrestricted biotechnology, and,through the eyes of the children on an show more individual scale; there is bullying, bravery and doing the "right" thing. A powerful, thought-provoking novel for grade 5 upwards. Highly recommended! Netgalley review. show less
I have a friend-- herself much more of a young adult literature scholar than I-- who, when she found out that I was assigning Holes in my YA literature class, objected strongly. Holes is not young adult, she said, it's middle grade. And indeed, if you look at the back of my copy it indicates "Ages 10 & up," and ten years is definitely below the somewhat fuzzy middle grade/young adult barrier. I couldn't muster much of a defense of it myself, having not actually read it prior to assigning it, show more but having had a hole to plug (I needed a male-written YA novel published in the 1990s to balance out my course) and finding it on a list.
Once I read it, though, I realized that age range aside, it's definitely young adult fiction. Something I talk about a lot is the difference between the features and the projects of genres, and Holes, I would argue, has the project of young adult fiction. Or, at least, one of them. In her book Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature (2000), Roberta Seelinger Trites argues that "[t]he chief characteristic that distinguishes adolescent literature from children's literature is the issue of how social power is deployed during the course of the narrative. In books that younger children read [...] much of the action focuses on one child who learns to feel more secure in the confines of her or his environment, usually represented by family and home" (2-3). But in the YA novel, Trites continues, "protagonists must learn about the social forces that have made them what they are. They learn to negotiate the levels of power that exist in the myriad social institutions within which they must function" (3).
Holes is all about power. Stanley confronts all sort of social forces during his time at Camp Green Lake: race, class, childhood, prison, probably many more you can think of (and my students did). And in complicated ways, too-- Stanley is accused of being racist when he uses the labor of a black child, Zero, to relieve his own (in exchange for which he teaches Zero how to read). Was Stanley wrong? Were his accusers? I don't think there are any good answers here; what's more important is how Stanley becomes aware of an entire dimension of racial power of which he was previously unaware. Trites says that "the YA novel teaches adolescents how to exist within the (capitalistically bound) institutions that necessarily define teenagers' existence" (19).
Stanley doesn't just learn about institutions, but he learns how to operate within them to get what he wants. And this goes to Trites' other take on power: it's also "the force that allows for subjectivity and consequently, agency" (5). Your internal power allows you to act. And that's one of the big trajectories of Holes: Stanley starts out seemingly powerless, but as the novel goes on, he finally learns how to act, how to do something instead of having things done to him, and that's how he saves the day. So, in terms of its concerns, I think Holes is much more YA than children's.
In fact, considering Trites's theory of power and YA literature allows us to solve one of the novel's complexities. Something my students were really into was whether the curse placed on the Yelnats family was real or not. It seems real, given that when Stanley solves the historical injustice, the land is regenerates (shades of what Farah Mendlesohn says in Rhetorics of Fantasy, and indeed, the climax of Holes bears some traces of what she calls the portal-quest fantasy). But the narrator deliberately casts doubt on the reality of the curse, and coincidence is a perfectly plausible explanation for the events of the novel, too. When this kind of discussion arises, my inclination is to redirect, away from asking which is real? toward why create the ambiguity? Hopefully it's there for a reason other than just love of ambiguity, and I would argue that in the case of Holes, it is.
By introducing the idea of a curse, Sachar can literalize the kind of institutional power and make it visible: the curse is classism and racism in action, distant institutions turned into concretized force. We can see the real effect these powers have on the world in general, and Stanley and Zero in particular. On the other hand, were the curse to be clearly real, that would remove its power as a symbol, Stanley wouldn't be fighting an institution, but magic, and he would have no real reason to assume personal responsibility (as Trites's formulation tells us he must) because the curse would have predetermined his life. Leaving the curse ambiguous creates a sweet spot, where we know there's something real out there working against Stanley, but it's not no powerful that it can defeat him. show less
Once I read it, though, I realized that age range aside, it's definitely young adult fiction. Something I talk about a lot is the difference between the features and the projects of genres, and Holes, I would argue, has the project of young adult fiction. Or, at least, one of them. In her book Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature (2000), Roberta Seelinger Trites argues that "[t]he chief characteristic that distinguishes adolescent literature from children's literature is the issue of how social power is deployed during the course of the narrative. In books that younger children read [...] much of the action focuses on one child who learns to feel more secure in the confines of her or his environment, usually represented by family and home" (2-3). But in the YA novel, Trites continues, "protagonists must learn about the social forces that have made them what they are. They learn to negotiate the levels of power that exist in the myriad social institutions within which they must function" (3).
Holes is all about power. Stanley confronts all sort of social forces during his time at Camp Green Lake: race, class, childhood, prison, probably many more you can think of (and my students did). And in complicated ways, too-- Stanley is accused of being racist when he uses the labor of a black child, Zero, to relieve his own (in exchange for which he teaches Zero how to read). Was Stanley wrong? Were his accusers? I don't think there are any good answers here; what's more important is how Stanley becomes aware of an entire dimension of racial power of which he was previously unaware. Trites says that "the YA novel teaches adolescents how to exist within the (capitalistically bound) institutions that necessarily define teenagers' existence" (19).
Stanley doesn't just learn about institutions, but he learns how to operate within them to get what he wants. And this goes to Trites' other take on power: it's also "the force that allows for subjectivity and consequently, agency" (5). Your internal power allows you to act. And that's one of the big trajectories of Holes: Stanley starts out seemingly powerless, but as the novel goes on, he finally learns how to act, how to do something instead of having things done to him, and that's how he saves the day. So, in terms of its concerns, I think Holes is much more YA than children's.
In fact, considering Trites's theory of power and YA literature allows us to solve one of the novel's complexities. Something my students were really into was whether the curse placed on the Yelnats family was real or not. It seems real, given that when Stanley solves the historical injustice, the land is regenerates (shades of what Farah Mendlesohn says in Rhetorics of Fantasy, and indeed, the climax of Holes bears some traces of what she calls the portal-quest fantasy). But the narrator deliberately casts doubt on the reality of the curse, and coincidence is a perfectly plausible explanation for the events of the novel, too. When this kind of discussion arises, my inclination is to redirect, away from asking which is real? toward why create the ambiguity? Hopefully it's there for a reason other than just love of ambiguity, and I would argue that in the case of Holes, it is.
By introducing the idea of a curse, Sachar can literalize the kind of institutional power and make it visible: the curse is classism and racism in action, distant institutions turned into concretized force. We can see the real effect these powers have on the world in general, and Stanley and Zero in particular. On the other hand, were the curse to be clearly real, that would remove its power as a symbol, Stanley wouldn't be fighting an institution, but magic, and he would have no real reason to assume personal responsibility (as Trites's formulation tells us he must) because the curse would have predetermined his life. Leaving the curse ambiguous creates a sweet spot, where we know there's something real out there working against Stanley, but it's not no powerful that it can defeat him. show less
What an odd book. It reads like a long hallucination of the past meets fairy tale more than anything else -- and that's interesting in its own right, but not intoxicating. On the one hand, Anatole becomes more and more compelling as a character over time, and I love this presentation of magical medieval medicine and how sometimes things that sound like nonsense are still relevant today. On the other hand, the characters are interesting, but rather flat and it's hard to care about them. Also show more there's a line about how parchment is so much more durable than paper that just annoys the snot out of me. Parchment is more durable than Modern paper. Paper before the Industrial Revolution is very stable and just as durable unless you are talking about setting it on fire or immersing it in water -- and see, that seems like a petty thing to get annoyed over, but if I can't trust that little fact that Anatole rattles off, how can I trust the rest of his tidbits?
but I digress. It's a fine book. It did not delight me the way that Holes delighted me, but it was worth the read and I wanted to finish it and I think it will stick with me for a while.
Advanced Readers' Copy provided by Edelweiss. show less
but I digress. It's a fine book. It did not delight me the way that Holes delighted me, but it was worth the read and I wanted to finish it and I think it will stick with me for a while.
Advanced Readers' Copy provided by Edelweiss. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 68
- Also by
- 4
- Members
- 78,530
- Popularity
- #157
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 1,642
- ISBNs
- 809
- Languages
- 25
- Favorited
- 58
