User:Jessehersh/sandbox

Public Reception

Holes has won numerous awards, most notably the 1998 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". It also won the William Allen White Children's Book Award in 2001. It continues to be well received by critics and was ranked number 6 among all-time children's novels by School Library Journal in 2012.

Betsy Hearne of the New York Times applauded the novel's integration of mystery and humor that manages to keep Holes light and fresh, and she characterizes it as a "family read-aloud." Roger Sutton of The Horn Book Magazine called Sachar's declarative style effective, and argues that it helped make the novel more poignant. Sutton appreciated the positive ending and the suspense that leads the reader to it.

Literary Elements

Fairy Tales

The themes typical of a folk or fairy tale are present throughout the novel, notable in both Stanley and Eyla's narratives. Eyla must go on an adventure to win his love's approval and prove his own worth and he is eventually placed under a witch's curse. Stanley's bad luck is blamed on the curse left on his great-great-grandfather and the Yelnats family easily believes in the power of this curse. Both Stanley and Elya are similar to fairy tale characters and are morally good, heroic protagonists who must overcome the challenges predestined for them. Both story lines are accompanied by a magic that is seen in the mountain stream, Madame Zeroni's song, and the healing power of the onions. Each of these elements in Holes mirror elements frequently found in fairy tales.

Names

Throughout the novel, names act as a theme that allows the characters to disassociate their lives at Camp Green Lake from their lives back in the real world. Names also demonstrate irony-- Camp Green Lake is not actually a camp, it's located in a desert, and there is no lake. The "campers" all label themselves differently and identify with names such as Armpit and X-Ray and the guards are referred to as counselors. One of the counselors is referred to by the boys as "Mom", representing the absent parents at Camp Green Lake. Only the woman in charge is referred to in a prison-like way and is called "Warden". The different names allow the boys to bond and form a team based in their hatred for their work and the counselors. Many of the characters also have names that connect them to their family history, like the passing down of "Stanley Yelnats" and Zero's last name of Zeroni, and remind them how the actions of their ancestors affect their modern-day lives. Stanley is the fourth "Stanley Yelnats" in his family, a name that is passed down due to its palindromic nature and adds to the connection to family history.

Themes

Labor

Labor is seen throughout the novel as the children as forced to dig holes while at Camp Green Lake. This theme is unique in children's literature as many authors portray children as carefree and without responsibility. If they do engage in work, it is synonymous with play. Critic Maria Nikolajeva contends that Holes is set apart through the not just manual, but forced labor Stanley and the other campers do daily. This is first referenced at the beginning of the book when the purpose of the camp is stated: "If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy".

New plan!

Who will write what?

• Public Reception: Newberry history, still used in schools, still very popular find modern review, move summary section about awards into reception
• One or two motifs/themes: Folklore/fairy tales, Names, POSSIBLY the west??

For Friday: J: Write a paragraph/100 words on names, H: paragraph/100 words on folklore/fairytale aspect

• Themes drafted by Friday

Annotated Bibliography

Mascia, Elizabeth G. "Holes: Folklore Redux." The ALAN Review, vol. 28, no 2, (2001), pp. 51. https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/v28n2/mascia.html

Mascia argues that Holes is grounded in folklore, and realism with these fairy tale elements. By integrating these folkloric elements, Holes keeps from becoming too dark of a tale. Good is able to win over evil and injustice.

• Folklore most clearly seen in the curse of bad luck on the great-great-grandfather
  • Cursed by a witch,the magic properties of the onion juice, the transformation of Stanley into able to save his family
• Checks off many boxes in Stith Thompson's Motif -Index of Folk Literature
• Realism seen in racism--why Kissin Kate was prevented from being with Sam--and poverty

Hearne, Betsy."He Didn't Do It." The New York Times. 15 Nov. 1998, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/15/reviews/981115.15hearnet.html?scp=91&sq=black%2520hole&st=cse

A positive review of Holes released shortly after Holes was published. Hearne applauds the use of mystery and humor to draw in the reader and argues it is a good read for the whole family. She enjoys the use of "folkloric devices" and says that though the book may be about boys, girls will also enjoy it.

• Cites the use of gross humor that keeps the book light (A kid nicknamed Barf Bag, for instance)
• Holes seems like it would be overly complex, unsuccessful, and predictable, but is surprisingly good and fresh.

Nikolajeva, M. ""A Dream of Complete Idleness": Depiction of Labor in Children's Fiction." The Lion and the Unicorn, vol. 26 no. 3, 2002, pp. 305-321. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/uni.2002.0031

Nikolajeva argues that depictions of work and labor have been missing from the majority of children's fiction. Because children's literature is written by adult authors, the view of childhood is given through a potentially inaccurate, idealized adult lens. He argues the motif of forced labor in Holes is unique, but that Sachar is not successful in his commentary on labor in Holes.

• If work is used, it is synonymous with play time. The children's work is seen as fun.
• Literature is unrealistic about financial situations
• discussion of Holes begins on page 318
• Calls the ending of Holes "implausible."

Møllegaard, K. "Haunting and History in Louis Sachar's Holes." Western American Literature, vol. 45 no. 2, 2010, pp. 138-161. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/wal.0.0117

Mollegard analyzes how the themes of Holes are dependent on the fact that it takes place in a desert. By combining uncomfortable historical events with the romanticism of the Old West, the stories in Holes crossover with myths and folklore to make the novel successful.

• Idea that something is hiding in the desert, despite the open and vast space
• Focus on how the landscape affects how we read the novel.

Wallin, Marie. "Literacy and the Power of the Law: Louis Sachar's Holes and Lemony Snicket's a Bad Beginning." Angles on the English-Speaking World, vol. 8, 2008, pp. 101-110. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.valpo.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2013100467&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Wallin explains how names in Holes play an important role in how the characters find their identity. She also details the theme of literacy as an escape from bad conditions and how in the book learning literacy mirrors Zero's escape from the camp.

• Gives examples of counselors, Zero, other campers (names separate their camp identity from their real world identity)
• Also explains how the power of authority at Camp Green Lake affects the campers

Pinsent, Pat. " Fate and Fortune in a Modern Fairy Tale: Louis Sachar's Holes." Children's Literature in Education, vol. 33 no. 3 (2002), pp. 203-212. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019682032315

Pinsent explains how fairy tales are still alive and well in children's literature, just present through different forms. He argues that Holes should be viewed as a modern day fairy tale because it uses similar techniques and concepts to explain darker themes such as cruelty and racism to children.

• Examples of uses of irony and tragedy
• Uses the friendship between Stanley and Zero as the baseline for comparison to past fairy tales.
• Questions if there is an actual theme/lesson that can be taken from the novel--what are we supposed to learn from the story?

We have chosen....HOLES!

Revised Plan of Action

• Holes is lacking an interpretation/reception section
  • We could add this by using research from academic articles/journals

• The extensive character descriptions are all either pulled directly from Sparknotes or slightly edited version of these descriptions http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/holes/characters/. We will either revise these character descriptions or make clear that are plagiarized and cite the Sparknotes webpages.
• Holes could benefit from a section on Themes (these include Fate/Folklore and Friendship)
  • This will be added through academic articles/journals and critical analyses of the novel

• Holes may also need a section on the structure of the book
  • It jumps between past and present to tell the story of both Stanley, his family, and the camp/town and this form should be made more clear
    • This is touched on in the plot summary as it is broken up by location. However, the changes in place and time are not separated like this in the novel.

Bibliography

• Møllegaard, K. "Haunting and History in Louis Sachar's Holes." Western American Literature, vol. 45 no. 2, 2010, pp. 138-161. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/wal.0.0117
• Wallin, Marie. "Literacy and the Power of the Law: Louis Sachar's Holes and Lemony Snicket's a Bad Beginning." Angles on the English-Speaking World, vol. 8, 2008, pp. 101-110. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.valpo.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2013100467&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
• Nikolajeva, M. ""A Dream of Complete Idleness": Depiction of Labor in Children's Fiction." The Lion and the Unicorn, vol. 26 no. 3, 2002, pp. 305-321. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/uni.2002.0031
• Wilkie-Stibbs, C. "Borderland Children: Reflections on Narratives of Abjection." The Lion and the Unicorn, vol. 30 no. 3, 2006, pp. 316-336. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/uni.2006.0043
• Makman, L. H. "Child Crusaders: The Literature of Global Childhood." The Lion and the Unicorn, vol. 26 no. 3, 2002, pp. 287-304. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/uni.2002.0033
• Barker, Jani L. "Virtuous Transgressors, Not Moral Saints: Protagonists in Contemporary Children's Literature." , 2014.
• Pinsent, Pat. " Fate and Fortune in a Modern Fairy Tale: Louis Sachar's Holes." Children's Literature in Education, vol. 33 no. 3 (2002), pp. 203-212. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019682032315
• Mascia, Elizabeth G. (2001) "Holes: Folklore Redux." The ALAN Review, vol. 28, no 2, p. 51.https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/v28n2/mascia.html

Rationale for Choosing Hatchet and Holes

Discuss how you would meaningfully add new material/research and otherwise improve the article.

Though Hatchet is a stub and Holes is at start, both seem to need a lot of work. Hatchet would benefit from sections on themes, style, background, and reception. The article currently references no academic sources or outside analysis of the novel. The plot could also stand to be expanded. Overall, the article needs to cover a wider breadth of information.

Holes also lacks any analytical references. Several of the links on the page are out of date, and it focuses too heavily on plot and characters. Both of these sections could stand to be paired down. Without other sections the article is unbalanced. Holes would also benefit from sections on themes, style, background, and reception.

Embed the links to the articles and provide a plan of action for each in the assigned team member's Sandbox. Briefly explain why your group is less interested in pursuing the other articles from your list.

• Hatchet
  • Add section on interpretation
  • Add section on critical reception
  • Change "Legacy" section to better reflect the information it contains
  • We plan to use academic articles/journals or Newberry award reports to find information.
• Holes
  • Holes is also lacking an interpretation/reception section
    • We would add this by using research from academic articles/journals
  • We chose these two articles because of their high importance and low quality. They were also books that Hayley and I were fairly familiar with and therefore could more easily confirm the accuracy of the information. The other articles had higher quality or were rated as less important so we didn't think our work would be as helpful there. --Jessehersh (talk) 01:41, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

Potential Articles

• Hatchet (novel)
  • This is rated high importance but is still a stub article. I remember reading this in (middle?) school and it probably is why I'm afraid of airplanes. However, it is semi-protected due to vandalism so this might not be the best option

• Holes (novel)
  • A high importance article at start level. Doesn't have many sources and only has sections on plot and characters (both of which are very long). Some people were very sassy in the talk page but this was in 2008
  • I'm definitely here to do Holes for our project --Jessehersh (talk) 01:15, 18 April 2018 (UTC)
  • Matilda (novel)
    • High importance C-rated

• Charlotte's Web
• Al Capone Does My Shirts
• Caps For Sale
  • Stub class, mid-importance
• The Egypt Game
  • Stub class, high importance
• Doctor Dolittle

April 15, 2018

• What content would you want to contribute? I would like to see the thematic understandings of Absalom, Absalom extended. Light in August has a much longer and detailed section in this regard. I would also like to see a section specific to characters in the Absalom article. I also think that a section should be added in the Light article around the later influence of the book, but this could perhaps be merged with the reception section?
• What research steps would you take to get that information? To learn more about these two short stories I would use literary guides and print research. I would find the most common analyses of the texts and add those to the analysis sections in order to represent the general scholastic conversation around the texts instead of my own interpretation or the interpretation of just one scholar.
• What recommendations would you propose to the style or organization? In both, I think that more citations could be added and some stylistic changes should be made to reduce the amount of opinion and make the articles more factual. I also think that the plot sections in each should be subcategorized to make them easier to scan and find information.

--Jessehersh (talk) 21:14, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

Article Evaluation Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? Some claims are not sourced and appear as if they were independent research (specifically in the "Themes" (Authority) page. Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article? A lot of the citations are for print resources which I couldn't easily check. Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted? Information seems to come from journals analyzing literature, rather than completely unbiased information that isn't trying to show a point. Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added? A movie has been made for the book and that isn't mentioned on the page. Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? It doesn't seem like there has been anything updated lately on the Talk page. However, past conversation seems to be about adding a section to decode language. How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? This article is part of "WikiProject" Novels". It is rated as a C-Class on the quality scale and is marked as mid-importance. It is supported by the science-fiction How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? I assumed the Talk page would have been edited more recently, but it seems like there hasn't been any action since ~2012. Jessehersh (talk) 21:10, 7 April 2018 (UTC)