Small Steps

Small Steps


Louis Sachar


Summary:

Armpit has just been released from Camp Green Lake and is now trying to rebuild his life. It will not be easy, but be is dedicated to trying his best.

Three years after Armpit's release everything is going well but as soon as X-Ray, Armpit's friend from Camp Green Lake, is released from the camp Armpit begins to worry. X-Ray engages Armpit in everything that he does. Armpit is worried at first but then is convinced that it is fine as long as he isn't influenced in the wrong way or gets into trouble alongside his on and off friend.
But before Armpit knows it, X-Ray is pushing him to buy and resell tickets to a Kaira DeLeon concert. X-Ray claims that they will earn a lot of money and nobody will even notice. Armpit on the other hand does not feel as comfortable as X-Ray to resell the tickets.

After Armpit naively lends X-Ray seven hundred dollars to buy a bunch of tickets, he knows that he is playing with fire...

Armpit wants to believe the best in X-Ray, but when X-Ray lies to him, makes two copies of one ticket, and cannot repay Armpit the money, Armpit doesn't know if he wants to continue helping X-Ray.

Armpit needs to figure out who his is, what he is capable of doing and if he prepared to deal with the law-breaking activity if scalping tickets.

A lesson of trust, forgiveness and courage is about to be learnt...

Review:

Small Steps is the follow-up book to Holes, which was a great book, but probably not as good as Small Steps. First of all, in Small Steps there are not as many characters that we have to focus on. We just have Armpit, X-Ray and Kaira. I think that this makes the reader more focused on the actual plot and makes the story more enjoyable. This book is the most cliff-hanging book that I have ever read, it has such a great plot that it impossible to put down!

I remember that I got this book at around 4 pm in the afternoon and I finished it abut 6 hours later! I unfortunately had to take a snack break, dinner break, walk break and shower break between those six hours! The point is though, that I could NOT put the book down, after Armpit agrees to help X-Ray sell the tickets the story gets so exciting, daring and, lets just say, ADDICTIVE!

All of the characters in Small Steps are very well portrayed. I can picture all of the characters in my head and feel as if I know them personally. Kaira is a very interesting character. She seems very happy on the outside, but she is actually very different inside. I like the fact that we get to learn about both sides of her. It was interesting to see how she is behind closed doors, she was pushed around and was unaware of what was actually going on, but onstage she looks glamourous and sings and dances like she is just having fun. She is one of those characters that remind you that you, and everyone else, is very different on the outside and inside.

I think that this book would be very good for teens that are trying to figure out who they really are.

The author, Louis Sachar, does an amazing job at showing how important friendship and trust are. He also explains to the reader how racism is wrong. Armpit is colored and he is made fun of, ignored and teased in the book, but Sachar shows us through Armpit's courage that we are all equal and the same.

Recommended for any tween 13+

257 pages

Holes

Holes

By Louis Sachar

Summary:

Stanley Yelnats IV (the fourth) is from a family of back luck. He is always in the wrong place, at the wrong time. When anything goes wrong, Stanley always blames his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather, the first Stanley Yelnats. He believes that he put a curse of bad luck on his family.

Stanley's family is poor and he is bullied everyday at school. He didn't like his life, but he just went with it.  But one day, when Stanley was walking home from school, a pair of red gym shoes hit him on the head, as if they had fallen from the sky. He was just underneath a bridge so somebody could have dropped them, but that seems unlikely to Stanley. Not knowing what to do Stanley took the shoes home, but before he knows it he is arrested for stealing the shoes. It turns out that they belonged to a famous athlete...

In court Stanley is given the choice of 18 months of jail, or 18 months at Camp Green Lake. Stanley had never been to camp before, so he chose Camp Green Lake.

But when the camp turns out to be a desert with no lake Stanley is confused, and when is new 'friends' names are X-Ray, Armpit, Zigzag, Magnet and Zero he is certain that Camp Green Lake is not a fun summer camp. Everyday Stanley and his new friends have to dig a hole 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide.

Nobody knows what they are looking for, but hole after hole Stanley starts to uncover a mystery that has been lying underneath Camp Green Lake for the past hundred years. It might even, just have something to do with the Yelnats' past as well...

Review:

I would like to start off my review of Holes by saying that I read it in Grade 3 and have already watched the movie many times (movie comparison and the end of the review). We were given Holes to read in English class this semester so I was really excited to reread it. I read it SUPER quickly this time though!

I think that Holes is a really good book that has many sides to it. It has a friendship side between Stanley and Zero (they become best friends) and we see how their friendship develops. Stanley has never had to dig holes before and his finds it really hard so, we get to read about what techniques he tries and how he finds it impossible to dig through the tough dirt. That shows a challenge side of the book. There is also the mystery side to the book...

I love all of the characters in the books, especially Stanley's friends at Camp Green Lake. They all have funny nicknames like Armpit and Magnet. It is also interesting to read about why all of the boys  at Camp Green Lake are there and what they did before they came to the camp. The boys make the book so much more fun to read because they are the strangest and weirdest characters in the book. They are always fooling around.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of the review it have watched the movie and wanted to do a short movie-book comparison. Here it is:

The movie is really well done and I think that is corresponds almost perfectly to the book, but there are moments in the movie when I think that maybe they could have made the scene a little longer or they could have added a couple of extra lines to make the view understand a little bit better.

Otherwise, everything is very well done: the clothes we worn exactly as they were mentioned in the book, and all of Stanley's friends looked exactly like the descriptions in the book. 

When you have a really good story, it's easy to make a really good movie. That is my conclusion.

P.S. I'm so sorry that I haven't gotten many reviews out this month. I had a very, very busy start to the school year, but now I'm back on track and you can expect a couple reviews next month!

Very, very, very strongly recommended to boys and girls ages 10-11+

It is a story that you will never forget...

233 pages