Review of 'Holes' by Louis Sachar - by Heena Pala, aged 13

Hello everyone - and a very belated Happy New Year (it's still January - just!)

As promised, I'll be featuring some more reviews of YA books this year by a young reader, Heena Pala, aged 13. Here is the first of the year - and it's of one of my all-time favourites. It's a great read for adults as well as younger readers: Holes, by Louis Sachar.

 
 “Holes” by Louis Sachar
Reviewed by Heena Pala
 
“Holes” is a book about a young boy of 11 who is accused of stealing a famous baseball player’s sneakers. Not being able to prove he hadn’t taken them, he has to be punished, he is given a choice of jail or a juvenile detention centre called Camp Green Lake. He chooses to go to the camp, where he has to dig a hole a day, five feet deep and five feet across to “build character” or so they say.

Stanley makes a loyal friend, unlike in school where he was continuously bullied for being overweight. One morning, when he finds his friend missing, he decides to go and look for him. After managing to escape from the camp, Stanley finds his friends, but they are both stranded in the desert for a week. Starving and surviving on onions and dirty water, the two boys give in and make their way back to camp, only to discover what the motive for digging holes is.
 
I like this book because it was so in depth that once I picked it up it was glued to my hands! This book at times has made me fill up with tears but burst out with laughter at the same time. It has also made me think about how lucky I am just to have loving friends and family around, which most of the boys in this book haven’t.
 
Please make time to read this book and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.


Thank you, Heena, for another great review. Happy reading, everyone.

Best wishes
Ros

Book Details:
Title: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing plc
Publication Date: October 2000

The Darkest Day...

... and beyond.

I'm blogging today on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure


More Rosalie Reviews coming soon!

Happy Christmas and all best wishes for the New Year,
Ros

Who (or what?) will be writing novels in a hundred years' time?

Who (or what) will be writing novels in a hundred years' time?




I'm blogging today on Do Authors Dream of Electric Books

More Rosalie Reviews coming soon!

Best wishes
Ros

Wonderful young readers and writers at King Henry VIII School, Coventry

I had the lovely experience last week of being a visiting author at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. My session was organised by Kirsty Kinmond, the enthusiastic librarian at the school. I was aksed to give an informal one-hour talk in the library, where I would say a bit about being a writer and answer questions from the students.

With students in the library at King Henry VIII school

One of the things I love about King Henry VIII is that the students are always so full of questions - and so ready to answer my questions to them. As the lunch hour progressed, more people came along and some had to leave to go to other things, but that was fine - it all added to the informal atmosphere. We had an interesting discussion abotu where fictional characters come from, and how it often feels as though you are not really making them up at all but listening in and watching to see what they will do next. We talked about favourite characters from books we'd read, and tried to work out what made a character really special. Many of us liked the idea of a hero/heroine who is not always very confident - someone who, like all of us, has doubts from time to time and maybe doesn't see him or herself as a hero at all (Frodo from Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings is a good example of that). And I was delighted to discover how many of my audience are writing books, stories, plays and film/animation scripts of their own.

But enough from me and over to Joe, who was one of the participants in the discussion. Joe has very kindly written the following piece about my visit, which I enjoyed reading very much. So thank you Joe, Kirsty and everyone else who made me so welcome at King Henry VIII School. I hope to see you all again soon.

Rosalie Warren visit

On the 7^th of November 2012 Rosalie Warren visited the library. She brought some of her books like Coping with Chloe and Charity's Child in the library. She asked some questions about some of our favourite characters out of books and films and we also got a chance to ask Rosalie Warren some of our own questions like how were you inspired to write and she said, 'I have always loved reading books and writing from a young age,' and that is apparently how she was inspired to write books.

We also all got a chance to give her some of our ideas for books and some of us explained characters that we had made up for our own books. We also had a pleasant biscuit while we were listening to Rosalie Warren's interesting points of views on certain books.

The visit from Rosalie Warren really put us in the shoes of a writer and how it amazed us to see how she got to where she is now.

A bit about Rosalie

'I always wanted to be a writer... even before I could write! I used to make up stories by drawing cartoon pictures of my characters and their adventures. The stories were mostly about big families, because I was a lonely little girl who didn't have brothers and sisters. Come to think of it, my stories are still mostly about families, because that’s where so much of our lives happens, both good and bad.

I have always loved reading and my all-time favourite books are the William books by Richmal Crompton.'

Proudly made by Joe Scott

The Writer's IF - with apologies to Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when every agent
Rejects your work without a kindly word;
If you can trust yourself to go on writing
When publishers ignore you by the herd;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting
For months or even years for a reply;
Or, being scorned repeatedly, don’t waver
In your attempt to catch a reader’s eye...
  
If you can keep your dreams and go on writing
Five hundred or a thousand words a day;
If you can meet with five stars or with one star
And value what both those reviewers say;
If you can bear to hear the words you’ve written
Mocked and reviled by critics young and old
And see the stuff you hate sell by the million
While yours stay on the bookshop shelves unsold...
  
If you can make a pile of your advances (ha!)
And lose them in the weekend’s lottery toss;
Work on your novel in between the phone calls
And never get caught at it by your boss;
If you can force your laptop, mouse and keyboard
To go on working even when they’re old;
And keep on typing when the muse is hiding,
Your confidence is broken and you’re cold...

If you can sit in shops and keep your patience
And not feel daft when no one stops to look;
If you can smile when, after two hours’ waiting,
No one has stopped to buy a single book;
If neither friends nor family can hurt you
When they suggest it’s time to drop your pen
Then welcome to this crazy world of writers –
You’ve proved your worth, you’re totally mad, my friend. 




Rosalie Warren
November 2012

Keeping going in the face of disappointment...

IF you're looking for clues on how to treat those two imposters - triumph and disaster - just the same and all that Kipling stuff, then don't read this...

But if like me, you're made of lesser stuff, then feel free to read on...

I received a horrible disappointment today about a writing project of mine.

Before I go any further - a note to those of my fellow writers who are not yet published - don't be under any illusions that it gets easier once you've published your first (or second, or third) novel. Oh, of course it does, for some. J. K. Rowling was laughing by that stage of her career. But for some of us... it definitely doesn't get any easier and I'm inclined to think it may sometimes get harder.

I can't say exactly what my latest disappointment is. All I can reveal is that, while I understand the rationale behind it and don't hold any grudges, it hurts. Oh my, does it hurt...

But only in the way that professional disappointments hurt. It's work, not life, when all is said and done. No one's life is under threat. However much I love writing - it's just work. It's not my family, my kids. The only thing that will suffer is my silly pride. It might well make me a better writer in the long run. (If only I could make that scan, it might actually sound a little Kiplingesque...)

The hard bit is picking yourself up, dusting yourself down and carrying on with the book you're currently writing - not listening to the taunting inner voice that cries, 'You're rubbish and this proves it!'

Not listening, do you hear?

I can write and I will write. What's more, I am writing. Good luck to all you other writers out there, whatever stage of your career you are at. Don't let anyone or anything stop you.

Best wishes
Ros

Writing Alexa's Song - on Electric Authors Today

Fancy being the new Bob Dylan?

I'm blogging on Authors Electric today - with news of an exciting competition coming soon.

http://authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/anyone-like-to-be-new-bob-dylan.html