Small Steps

I loved the 1998 YA novel Holes by Louis Sachar, which won both the  Newbery Medal and a National Book Award, so as soon as I saw the spin-off novel Small Steps on the bookstore shelf last year, I knew I wanted a copy.

Fortunately before I splurged on a full price copy, I managed (with great surprise) to find an excellent hardcover copy in the bargain bin at Book Sale for a measly P60 ($2)! Haha, that’s normally what I would spend for a bargain book, but it was practically a steal so I was grinning from ear to ear as the cashier wrapped up my purchases! :)

Small Steps (book #118 for 2009) features the Holes characters Armpit (a.k.a Theodore Johnson) and X-Ray (Rex Alvin Washburn) two years after their adventures in Camp Green Lake (the juvie correctional camp that served as the setting for Holes), now back home in Austin, Texas.

Armpit, now 17, has led a peaceful life so far, and because he doesn’t want to fall back into delinquency, he lists five small steps he needs to take to move forward in his life:

1.  Graduate from high school.

2. Get a job (and he does — at a landscaping company, where the boss likes him because he can dig fast, a skill picked up at Camp Green Lake).

3. Save his money.

4. Avoid situations that might turn violent (he got sent to Camp Green Lake because of a brawl that started when he tripped over a bucket of popcorn at the cinema).

and 5. Lose the name Armpit.

Armpit has a tough-guy exterior because of his menacing and brawny stature, but amusingly, he’s a big softie: his best friend Ginny is a ten year old with cerebral palsy, he is paranoid about getting body odor (especially with a nickname like Armpit), he gets shy around girls, and he has the biggest crush on teen popstar Kaira de Leon.

When Austin becomes the neat stop on Kaira de Leon’s concert tour, X-ray approaches Armpit to partner with him in a get-rich-quick scheme involving scalping tickets to the concert, and life as Armpit knows it goes off on crazy tangents.

Because I’m a fan of Holes, I was initially disappointed that it wasn’t a sequel like I expected, but a spin-off involving the two Holes characters. Sadly, neither Stanley Yelnats nor Zero make an appearance in this book.

The good news is, there is still a lot to like about this novel.

I like how the book combines an urban, modern-day adventure and important issues such as juvenile delinquency, race, the nature of being a celebrity, judging people for their past deeds, and coping with disability.

Armpit is not the typical young adult novel protagonist, but his continuous struggle to stay on the right track won me over.  I also like the message of the book — that it takes a small step in the right direction to do the right thing.

The book is a bit edgier than Holes, probably because a lot of time has passed between now and 1998, but somehow I still liked Holes over Small Steps. Perhaps Sachar wanted to appeal to the new generations of readers, or took into account that Holes fans have grown older, but while this book is good in its own right, it doesn’t have the same charm that Holes had.

I still wish Sachar would write another Stanley Yelnats story!

**

My copy: hardcover with dust jacket

My rating: 4/5 stars