The Cardturner

Seeing as how he's my favorite writer, I was really excited to read Louis Sachar's new book, The Cardturner. My wife even ordered it for me in advance and I eagerly awaited its arrival for several weeks. To my disappointment, the book was not all I'd hoped for. Don't get me wrong, it's still quite good, but it doesn't measure up to some of Sachar's other classics like Holes or the Wayside School books. For the most part, it follows a somewhat conventional plot structure, something that Sachar has often successfully avoided.
The story is about a teenager named Alton Richards who gets roped into being the "cardturner" for his bridge-obsessed, blind uncle. Alton's parents want him to make a good impression on the old man because he is extremely wealthy and they'd like to be included in his will, although they never directly say that. This part is responsible for a lot of the humor in the book, which is successful most the time. In my opinion, Sachar has always been able to deliver the laughs.
As he gets to know his uncle better, Alton also learns more about himself and his family history. He also learns some new things from his eccentric uncle. You get the idea.
The story focuses a lot on the card game bridge, something I know next to nothing about. I like that Sachar chose to write about something so unhip and uncool. As I read in an interview with him, every other teen author right now is writing about vampires so writing about an ancient card game for old people is like career suicide. Well, he didn't quite use those words, but something like that anyway. And I agree, at this time when it seems that every author is writing the same stories, it's refreshing to find a story with no pretensions and no attempts to be trendy or cool. My problem was that I just felt like Sachar didn't reach his potential. To borrow an analogy my friend once used, The Cardturner is like vanilla ice cream: it's good because it's ice cream, but it lacks something and fails to reach its full potential of awesomeness.

Holes

This Louis Sachar novel is one of my favorite books of all time. If you've only seen the movie, don't compare or judge the book by it--the book is way better. (You probably knew I was going to say that.)
The creative plot of this easy read centers around an overweight boy named Stanley Yelnats. Stanley, after having been convicted of a crime that he did not commit, believes himself to be a part of curse that was long ago put on his family. He is sent to Camp Green Lake in Texas to dig a hole every day, which he is told builds character. As the plot unwinds the camp warden's ulterior motives for digging are revealed.
I love the way this book is written. Sachar tells several stories at once, which at first seem to jump around from one to another. But by the end of the book they all come together and we see that they are all part of the same grand story. I really like this aspect of the writing and the way that Sachar is not only able to jump from character to character, but from time period to time period. I wish more books were written this way.
This book won the Newberry Medal in 1999. I think this was a well-deserved award. Holes combines several issues smoothly; things like justice, racism and teenage interaction are just a few.
Like with all of Sachar's books, Holes is written in simple, easy-to-understand language. There are a lot of jokes and most of them are quite dry. I think simplicity this well done is the sign of a great writer.
I try to read this book every so often and I highly recommend it to anyone else. Like I said, it is easily one of my favorite books ever. I think its writing style is creative and unique, its jokes hilarious and its themes important. I hope Sachar continues to put out quality literature like this because this is what the world needs.

Is He a Girl?

I love reading kids' books and Louis Sachar is one of my favorite all-time authors. His books are funny, insightful and have great stories. There are a lot of times where I would choose his books over an 'adult book.'
This book is number three of eight in the Marvin Redpost series. The series follows a young redhead boy on his various adventures.
Is He a Girl? tells the story of the time when Marvin, after talking to a girl in his class about how to turn into a girl, thinks that he accidentally did it and has turned into a girl. For the rest of the story he is confused with his identity and ends up not really sure who or what he is. Sachar has several books where people's thoughts or beliefs about themselves are what cause those things to be true. Its a pretty interesting idea and he does it well here in a humorous and light-hearted way. This one gets a big thumbs-up.