Review:
Small steps by Louis Sacher
Random
House, New York, 2007
(11+) Armpit, released from Camp Green Lake detention centre, where he
dug holes for the warden, is advised by his counselor to take small
steps if he wants to avoid being one of the 78% of African Americans
who return to jail after their release. Determined not to be another
statistic, Armpit enrolls at school, and takes a part time job. But he
reckons without his Camp Green Lake acquaintance, X-Ray, who turns up
offering Armpit the chance to make money.
Readers will instantly know that Armpit will not make a good choice,
but he is such a strongly drawn character, that readers will wish that
he succeeds. In this exciting adventure story, Armpit's good nature
comes to the fore, as he befriends the disabled girl next door, is
attracted to a girl in his class whose friends scare her off, and as he
deals with his friend, X-Ray and his schemes. A very likeable and funny
read about the boys who once inhabited the world of
Holes,
Small steps is easy to read with
lots of twists and turns, as Armpit befriends a singer whose manager
wants her dead.
Fran Knight
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