True Confessions of Hannah Faith

Small Steps

Posted on January 31st, 2007 by hanfaith.
Categories: Book Reviews, General.

I was excited when I saw this book by Louis Sachar. According to the dust jacket, it was a sequel to one of my all-time favorite books Holes. Unfortunately, the similarities ended there.

Small Steps follows “Armpit” after his discharge from Camp Green Lake. Armpit (or Theodore, his true name) is trying to reenter society and fighting against prejudice and peer pressure. In many ways, Small Steps was the book I expected to read when I first picked up Holes. I expected Holes to be full of bad boy turns good imagery, but was pleasantly surprised by the elements of mystery and magic. Small Steps, on the other hand, felt like just another misunderstood teen book. There was no magic to it (and I don’t mean fantasy, I mean that special spark that pulls you into the story) and the writing seemed course at times.

Theodore falls in love with a famous singer (Kaira DeLeon), who is trapped in her career by her over-bearing step-father. The clichés don’t end there. X-ray (back from Camp Green Lake as well) convinces Theodore to contribute his earnings from his steady landscape job toward tickets for Kaira’s concert, which X-ray intends to sell for quite a steep price. Unsurprisingly, the police get involved, Theodore gets caught up in the midst of the scalping and convinces himself that lying is the only way out, and X-ray gets away scott-clean.

Sachar tries to make the reader feel sympathy for both Theodore and Kaira, trapped in their different paths, but instead, I found myself uninterested in their plights. Sachar’s attempt to make Theodore appear three-dimensional through his relationship with his next door neighbor, Ginny, with cerebral palsy seems forced at best. I kept sensing that I was supposed to feel bad for Theodore because of all the look-he’s-really-a-great-kid-at-heart moments, but instead I found myself bored. The book lacked imagination.

I won’t ruin the ending, but it’s a bit far-fetched in my mind – especially for a book that throws aside all evidence of the mythical/tall-tale aspects of it’s predecessor.

I wouldn’t recommend this book, but still have a fond place in my heart for Holes. Guess I’ll just have to keep hoping that Sachar can pull off another winner sometime in the future, but I’m not holding my breath.

0 comments.