Reading this book was a unique experience. It must be twenty years since I last read a children's book apart from John Connolly's The Gates, which was a compulsory - and very enjoyable - read due to my fondness for the author's mystery novels.
I don't know what made me pick up Holes, but I surely didn't regret it. For such a short novel, this book is full of wit, humour, excitement, and most of all a story that I found quite simply captivating. The author's sparse, but marvellously entertaining writing style makes this the perfect book for introducing children to the joys of reading, but it's a story that does even more: it works miracles in the heart. There was something to make me smile or laugh out loud on every page, but also so many moments to warm the heart.
I found magic in this book. Magic that made me a child again for a while and reminded me of the miracle that reading once was, when every page, every word seemed to come to life and create wonderful worlds of colour, beauty and adventure.
Reading is still a miracle, but sometimes you need books like Holes to remind you just how much it is so.
