Holes by Louis Sachar

Today I spent the morning at Puahue School teaching the Year 5 and 6 class. They are all students I have taught in the past year or two. Last week I noticed their teacher was reading the book Holes by Louis Sachar to them. Ironically I had just bought the book at a second hand book fair ten days earlier. It's a story for young people that I had wanted to read for a while and finally got around to doing so. It's a clever story with a straightforward writing style. I liked the way all the pieces of the storyline, from a hundred years in the past to the events of the present, were linked together. The children, every one of the 30 of them, were thoroughly enjoying the story. They have been learning to write letters so today they each wrote a letter to Louis Sachar. I found an address for his publisher in New York so hopefully the letters will reach him and he can enjoy the children's opinions and maybe answer their questions.