Holes is a Newbery Medal

Newbery Medal

The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...

-winning novel by Louis Sachar

Louis Sachar

Louis Sachar is an American author of children's books who is best known for the Sideways Stories From Wayside School book series and the 1998 novel Holes, for which Sachar won a National Book Award and the Newbery Medal...

. It was adapted into a screenplay for the 2003 film

Holes (film)

Holes is a 2003 film based on the novel of the same name by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the screenplay, with Shia LaBeouf as the lead role of Stanley Yelnats...

 by Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...

. In 2006, Sachar published Small Steps

Small Steps (novel)

Small Steps is a young adult novel by Louis Sachar written in 2006. It is a sequel to the Newbery Medal-winning Holes. The novel follows the lives of characters Theodore and Rex after they leave Camp Green Lake....

, a companion novel featuring one of the characters from Holes.
At the beginning of the story, Stanley Yelnats IV, a timid, fat boy supposedly affected by a family “curse”, has been wrongly accused of stealing shoes belonging to the baseball player Clyde Livingston from a charity auction, and sentenced to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention and correction facility where boys of similar age are forced to dig holes to “build their character.” Warden Walker, real granddaughter of Trout Walker, is actually looking for a buried treasure that infamous outlaw Kathryn "Kissin' Kate" Barlow stole from Stanley's grandfather.