This book had a very unique idea and a whole different ways of portraying things. This book is about a Stanley Yelnats who is believed to be “cursed” by his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather is sent to a boy’s detention center in the middle of nowhere even though he’s innocent. There he has to build a hole each day in the blaring Sun to “build character”. Then later he realizes that to the warden it’s much more than just digging holes, but instead they’re all digging to find something. Although what could be buried inside a dried up lake? As he tries to find out what it is, he makes new friends.
    

What I enjoyed most was how well the author perfectly weaved the past and the present together. Sachar showed us how our history can influence the way things are now and who we become in life while also still keeping this book light enough to where it’s still a children’s book. The way this book was also written gave you a sense of how you should treat others. What’s different about this book is that unlike other children’s book it talks about how to handle a bad situation during a tough time. The characters are also making the right choices even though they know that there is no reward to be given to them. They learn to deal with the problems they’re faced with and to try to always make the right choices. A quote I really enjoyed was, “That night, as Stanley lay on his scratchy and smelly cot, he tried to figure out what he could have done differently, but there was nothing he could do” (Louis Sachar 64) I enjoyed this quote because  a lot of people think of how they could’ve changed the situation, but instead they should think of what they could do better next time. Another quote I enjoyed was, “Zero took the shovel. Then he swung it like a baseball bat. The metal blade smashed across Mr. Pendanski’s face.” I loved this quote because Zero finally stood up for himself which brings up part of the conflict.
    

Although what I didn’t enjoy about this book is that throughout the whole story I always felt the lack of detail. Sachar would explain what's happening, but would not give a lot of sensory details. I couldn't as easily make a picture in my mind of how the characters look or how the place they’re at looks. It took me a while to put the pieces together on how the people looked and how the place around them looked.
    

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very humorous and interesting. The idea was very unique and it kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time. I really wished I had read the book instead of just watching the movie all these years. And before I elaborate on the movie version, I just wanna say the book was a whole lot better.