Excellent Reading on the Kindle

books:


	• Small Steps (Readers Circle) Louis Sachar Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 100 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Small Steps after Holes

Sachar is a good writer, regardless of the style or level of writing (geared to Young Adults as the 10 to 15-year-old tweeners that libraries aim his books toward are known).

He succeeds (at least as well as I can tell being a 48-year-old father of three kids who went through that stage a few years back) at hitting the sweet spot of that market with smart, funny, insightful, writing that makes good reading even for adults.

This is a followup to his smash title Holes, which I also read and reviewed and became a very good Hollywood movie (Holes (Widescreen Edition) starring Shia Lebouf, Jon Voight, and Sigourney Weaver. In Small Steps, Armpit and X-Ray, two of the delinquents who have graduated from Camp Green Lake (neither green, nor a lake, the boys were punished and "reformed" by digging holes day after day looking for buried treasure; read the book or see the movie) and the legal system and trying to return to law-abiding society. Armpit has grown into a strong, handsome African-American man of 17, working as a landscaper while taking summer classes to catch up and and be able to graduate from high school. While he has served his legal penalty, he still faces scrutiny from his parents, uncertainty from his classmates, and fear from the society around him; Sachar frankly talks about the casual racism Armpit (real and preferred name Theodore) faces on a regular basis. Theodore is taking the small steps of the title toward his life goals, while best friends with his duplex neighbor Ginny, a 10-year-old white girl who has cerebral palsy.

When X-Ray approaches Theodore with a scheme to make money buying and scalping tickets to the local concert of the latest sultry teenage singer, Theodore's small steps start veering off the track, and threaten to derail his plans. While Sachar is clear that Theodore makes some bad choices, he is also sympathetic toward the pressures he faces.

Theodore convinces X-Ray to save the last two tickets so that he and Ginny can go to the concert, a fun trip that goes awry when this odd couple is accused of having counterfeit tickets. This sequence of events drives the story to its climax, and Sachar does a good job of bringing the book to an exciting, believable, and (yes!) happy ending.

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Excellent

When a book is called children's literature or teen literature or young adult literature, that's just the marketing people talking. I've been a Sachar fan for a long time, and he simply writes literature. But as this one has sat upon my bookshelf in hardcover for a year or so, I somehow missed the fact that it was published only a year or so ago. His latest and he's still writing! Yahoo wahoo and yippee skippy! The guy wins so many awards for juvenile writing that I'm too lazy to list them all, but I believe this is his finest effort. I enjoyed it tremendously. If it's not in your library, run to your local bookstore. You will love it.

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Small Steps - a must read

What would you do if an old troublemaking friend of yours offers you a way to make a ton of money? Well in the book Small Steps by Louis Sachar you will follow a teenage boy's story as he goes through the same problem. Theodore Johnson (Armpit) is a teenage boy living in Austin, Texas, and is trying to regain his life after spending a year in a correctional facility when an old friend offers a way to double his money, but he will have to take a risk. He hits some rough spots but will get an adventure along the way.
I enjoyed this fictional sequel to Holes because of the great adventure Armpit finds himself in following a difficult situation. Louis Sachar kept my interest by explaining how Armpit met the young rock star Kaira DeLeon. This book seems more appropriate for a middle school audience or slightly younger. If you want a book that will show you a good time read this book.

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Couldn't Put it Down!

This book was amazingly great. It was completely different from Holes. In my opinion I thought it was way better. When I started this book I thought it would be good just like Holes. I was way wrong. It was so much better. I started reading it and I just couldn't put it down. I'm 13 and I loved this book. I think it's a great book for anyone.

Excellent Reading on the Kindle

This is my 2nd book read on the Kindle, and wow, I really enjoyed it! I've been a fan of Louis Sachar since I discovered the Wayside series 7 years ago and read them to my students who loved them. I read Holes before I saw the movie, and it's one of the very few DVD's that I have.

This book is definitely different than Holes, but different is a good thing. Although the primary characters are black, you wouldn't really know or care about race while reading this book. The writing style of Sachar keeps things neutral, while at the same time, gripping. I found this book much more direct, with much more heart (especially with the character Ginny), and it had a good ending to the book that leaves you smiling.

Fans of Sachar should definitely read this book. It's a bit easier to follow if you have read Holes, but it's not a prerequisite.

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