Winner - Jamie Dunne LD1

Holes “When you spend your whole life living in a hole, the only way you can go is up.” Zero (Hector Zeroni) 

As a ten year old boy I hadn’t fully discovered my passion for reading after having spent much of my infant years reading Biff and Chip and The Hungry Caterpillar (which I loved up until the age of seven). I hadn’t read many teen books – this was my first and will forever be ‘up there’ with my favourite books of all time; Holes is the book that changed my life…

Stanley Yelnats has been sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention centre for boys, after being wrongly accused of stealing to benefit his inventor father and his mother. Stanley and his campmates are forced to dig a hole, five feet deep and five feet wide - this exercise is meant to build character.

Every day it seems to get tougher and tougher for Stanley; the days are swelteringly hot, and their water bottles are normally empty. However, Stanley soon gets learns how to battle his ongoing exhaustion and the holes start to get easier.

Stanley meets some interesting and rather disruptive characters at camp. However, he eventually makes friends. Stanley's known as Caveman. Then there's Armpit, X-Ray, Magnet, Squid, Zigzag and finally Zero. The mute and rather mysterious Zero hardly ever talks and when he does, he only talks to Stanley. Stanley's desperate to figure him out and, through teaching Zero to read, he gets the chance. However, Caveman and Zero soon find themselves on the verge of death, after breaking loose from Camp Green Lake! Only fate and true friendship can save them from this sticky situation and those two elements prove just about enough!

Holes was the first crime novel I ever read and certainly had an impact on the way I thought about criminals – ‘the bad men who always wore black and white striped pyjamas behind bars’ – as I thought of them before reading Holes! This book will surely put a spin on what and who you think criminals are – perhaps criminals are just in the wrong place at the wrong time; perhaps the criminal is being wrongly blamed for a crime he has not committed; perhaps just a young teenager who has had an extremely tough upbringing and has experienced bullying. Stanley is all of these ‘criminals’. This book changed my perspective on criminals.

The inspirational friendship between Hector Zeroni (known in camp as the colourfully named Zero) and Stanley Yelnats (known as Caveman) is truly inspirational and quite wonderfully crafted by Louis Sachar; so much so that it inspired myself and hopefully many other readers to not only read more but also to craft that forgiving friendship that played such a big part in Holes.

This book is inspiring to myself, because it teaches you about loyalty, true friendship and not judging others by their looks - or their unfortunate mistakes in life. Ever since I read Holes I try my very hardest to look at people in a different light; nobody should ever judge people by the colour of one’s skin, disabilities, obesity or perhaps unfortunate mistakes in life; but by the content of their character. This book taught me that, in life there are many ‘unfortunate happenings’ which people are unfairly judged by; whether it to be because someone’s blamed you or possibly your no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather; one of the many morals in Holes is to remember that sometimes, not always, but sometimes, accidents happen!

2nd - Nathaniel Carn

3rd - Texter Christian-Terry

War HorseThe book that changed my life was War Horse because it made me realise how tough life was for the poor and innocent people in wartime. I first read the book when I was 10; this influenced the way I interpreted the book as I did not have as much experience as I do now.

This book told a story of war life and how people lived in that period of time. It also appeals to some people as frightening, as it was so hard for families being split up and fathers and men being sent to war. It made me realise the truth about history and that most historic events are engraved in time, never forgotten and usually involve death.

One of the saddest things about war is that many of the soldiers just want to put food on the table for their families and put a roof over their heads. Also many of the fighters didn’t want to fight each other, they just wanted peace, love and harmony, however, their wishes were not met and there war raged on as the defenceless children cower in the countryside.

The book has made me realise how lucky I am, to have food on my table, to have a happy family, to not worry that when my parents go to work they may never come back. It has also made me want to always be against war and always vote against it myself. The book is also very touching and could be interpreted as an action or harrowing book, as it has a wide range of different events in there.

There are hardships in the story where there is seemingly no hope, this makes you realise that some people were not even living in a house, but on the streets in a lifeless, barren and neglected road. In contrast to my own life, where I have a very comfortable home, which is always adequately heated, with food available whenever I desire. The book has helped me to appreciate all that I have and the ease with which I can obtain almost everything I wish for at the click of a finger.

As well as “human cruelty” the animals had a hard time in war, they were treated with so little respect that some of them were made “war weapons”, such as: dogs and horses. Compared to modern day war animals, they were much crueller with their jobs and missions.

The book also gave me an insight into relationships between animals and people. The boy trusted the horse with his life and he received much

satisfaction from this relationship, even though the horse did not really understand him, he felt that they had a special connection. They anticipated a long journey together through hardship and obstacles but with the power of their friendship, they managed to complete this journey.

I wish to read a book like this again as I would like to be reminded of how fortunate I am so that I take less for granted.

Highly Commended: Alex Miller, Charlie Davey, Cameron Elrick, Alfie Attrill, George Ellaway, Louis Bowry-Jenkins, Nathaniel Lee, Louis Hannan, Harry Olorenshaw, David Almond, Max Rhodes, George Davey, Harrison Garner, William Murphy