About the Author
“I want kids to think that reading can be just as much fun and more so than TV or video games or whatever else they do.” —Louis Sachar
Holes tells the story of how a single event—a pair of sneakers falling out of the sky—changes the course of a person’s life. Author Louis Sachar (pronounced Sacker) was born in East Meadow, New York, in 1954. His mother stayed at home to care for Louis and his older brother Andy. Sachar's father sold Italian shoes, which may explain the importance of foot wear in the novel!
Sachar worked at a series of jobs before becoming an author. But it was his work as a teacher's aide that gave him the inspiration to write for children. To date, Sachar has published twenty-one books for children. His books have won many awards. Holes earned a dozen honours and became the first book ever to win both the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in the same year. The Newbery, the most prestigious prize in American literature for children, is awarded annually by the children’s librarians of the American Library Association. Another great honour, the National Book Award, is presented to one book each year selected by the National Book Foundation as an outstanding contribution to children’s literature. Sachar receives a lot of fan letters from readers who have enjoyed his books, and he visits schools and bookstores all over the USA where he reads and talks about his work.
Holes was first published in 1998, when Sachar’s daughter, Sherre, was in fourth grade. She told her father she thought the Warden, the mysterious red-haired woman in charge of Camp Green Lake, was scary. Sachar was surprised when other readers agreed. He’d imagined the Warden, with her venomous fingernails, as a cartoonish and exaggerated villain, like the characters in comic books. Sachar says he based the figure of the Warden on a woman he knows. “But she’s not nasty like the Warden, not at all. She’s very nice.” All the other characters and events in Holes come from Sachar’s imagination, including the 10 yellow-spotted lizards that play such an important role in the story
Holes tells the story of how a single event—a pair of sneakers falling out of the sky—changes the course of a person’s life. Author Louis Sachar (pronounced Sacker) was born in East Meadow, New York, in 1954. His mother stayed at home to care for Louis and his older brother Andy. Sachar's father sold Italian shoes, which may explain the importance of foot wear in the novel!
Sachar worked at a series of jobs before becoming an author. But it was his work as a teacher's aide that gave him the inspiration to write for children. To date, Sachar has published twenty-one books for children. His books have won many awards. Holes earned a dozen honours and became the first book ever to win both the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in the same year. The Newbery, the most prestigious prize in American literature for children, is awarded annually by the children’s librarians of the American Library Association. Another great honour, the National Book Award, is presented to one book each year selected by the National Book Foundation as an outstanding contribution to children’s literature. Sachar receives a lot of fan letters from readers who have enjoyed his books, and he visits schools and bookstores all over the USA where he reads and talks about his work.
Holes was first published in 1998, when Sachar’s daughter, Sherre, was in fourth grade. She told her father she thought the Warden, the mysterious red-haired woman in charge of Camp Green Lake, was scary. Sachar was surprised when other readers agreed. He’d imagined the Warden, with her venomous fingernails, as a cartoonish and exaggerated villain, like the characters in comic books. Sachar says he based the figure of the Warden on a woman he knows. “But she’s not nasty like the Warden, not at all. She’s very nice.” All the other characters and events in Holes come from Sachar’s imagination, including the 10 yellow-spotted lizards that play such an important role in the story