Small steps

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The young adult follow-up to the bestselling Newbery Award book and movie sensation, Holes .

Two years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is home in Austin, Texas, trying to turn his life around. But it's hard when you have a record and everyone expects the worst from you. The only person who believe in Armpit is Ginny, his ten-year-old disabled neighbor. Together, they are learning to take small steps.

Armpit seems to be on the right path until X-Ray, a buddy from Camp Green Lake, comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme. X-Ray's plan leads to a chance encounter with teen pop sensation Kaira DeLeon, the Beyoncé of her time, and suddenly Armpit's life spins out of control. Only one thing is certain: he'll never be the same again.

Combining his signature wit with a unique blend of adventure and deeply felt characters, Sachar explores issues of race, the nature of celebrity, the invisible connections that shape a person's life, and what it takes to stay the course. Doing the right thing is never a wrong choice--but always a small step in right direction.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

A rusted Honda Civic drove noisily down the street and parked across from the mayor's house. Armpit had finished digging his trench and was attaching PVC pipe. The mayor had gone back inside. The driver-side door had been bashed in, and it would have cost more to fix than the car was worth. The driver had to work his way over the stick shift and then exit on the passenger side. The personalized license plate read: X RAY. "Armpit!" X-Ray shouted as he crossed the street. "Armpit!" The guys at work didn't know him by that name, but if he didn't say something X-Ray would just keep on shouting. Better to answer and shut him up. "Hey," he called back. "Man, you're really sweating," X-Ray said as he came near. "Yeah, well, you'd sweat too if you were digging." "I've already dug enough dirt to last one lifetime," said X-Ray. They had met each other at Camp Green Lake. "Look, don't call me Armpit around other people, all right?" Armpit said. "But that's your name, dawg. You should never be ashamed of who you are." X-Ray had the kind of smile that kept you from hating him no matter how annoying he was. He was skinny and wore glasses, which were now covered with clip-on shades. He picked up Armpit's shovel. "Different shape." "Yeah, it's for digging trenches, not holes." X-Ray studied it awhile. "Seems like it would be harder to dig with. No leverage." He let it drop. "So you must be making a ton of money." Armpit shrugged. "I'm doing all right." "A ton of money," X-Ray repeated. Armpit felt uncomfortable talking about money with X-Ray. "So really, how much you got saved up so far?" "I don't know. Not that much." He knew exactly how much he had. Eight hundred and fifty-seven dollars. He hoped to break a thousand with his next paycheck. "Got to be at least a thousand," said X-Ray. "You've been working for three months." "Just part-time." Besides working, Armpit was also taking two classes in summer school. He had to make up for all the schooling he'd missed while at Green Lake. "And they take out for taxes and stuff, so really I don't take home all that much." "Eight hundred?" "I don't know, maybe." "The reason I'm asking," X-Ray said, "the reason I'm asking is I got a business proposition for you. How would you like to double your money in less than two weeks?" Armpit smiled as he shook his head. "I don't think so." "I just need six hundred dollars. Double your money, guaranteed. And I won't be taking out any taxes." "Look, things are going all right for me right now, and I just want to keep it all cool." "Don't you even want to hear me out?" "Not really." "It's not against the law," X-Ray assured him. "I checked." "Yeah, you didn't think selling little bags of parsley for fifty dollars an ounce was against the law either." "Hey, it's not my fault what people think they're buying. How is that my fault? Am I supposed to be a mind reader?" X-Ray had been sent to Camp Green Lake for selling bags of dried parsley and oregano to customers who thought they were buying marijuana. That was also why his family had to move from Lubbock to Austin shortly after he was released. "Look, I just don't want to do anything that might screw things up," Armpit said. "That's what you think? That I came here to screw things up? Man, I'm offering you an opportunity. An opportunity. If the Wright brothers came to you, you would have told them it's impossible to fly." "The Wright brothers?" asked Armpit. "What century are you living in?" "I just don't get it," said X-Ray. "I don't get it. I offer my best friend an opportunity to double his money, and he won't even listen to my idea." "All right, tell me your idea." "Forget it. If you're not interested I'll find somebody else." "Tell me your idea." He actually was beginning to get just a little bit curious. "What's the point?" asked X-Ray. "If you're not going to even listen . . ." "All right, I'm listening," said Armpit. X-Ray smiled. "Just two words." He paused for effect. "Kaira DeLeon." It was eleven-thirty in Austin, but it was an hour later in Atlanta, where Kaira DeLeon, a seventeen-year-old African American girl, was just waking up. Her face pressed against Pillow, which was, in fact, a pillow. There wasn't much oomph left in the stuffing, and the edges were frayed. The picture of the bear with a balloon, which had once been brightly colored, had faded so much it was hardly visible. Kaira groggily climbed out of bed. She wore boxer shorts and was unbuttoning her pajama top as she made her way to what she thought was the bathroom. She opened the door, then shrieked. A thirty-year-old white guy, sitting on a couch, stared back at her. She clutched the two halves of her pajama top together and slammed the door. The door bounced back open. "Doofus!" Kaira shouted at the man, then closed the door again, making sure it latched this time. "Can't a person have some privacy around here!" she screamed, then made her way to the bathroom, which was on the opposite side of her bed. Over the last three and a half weeks she'd been in nineteen different hotel suites, each with no fewer than three rooms, and one with six. So really, it was no wonder she went through the wrong door. She didn't even remember what city she was in. She suspected that Polly, her psychiatrist, would tell her she had done that on purpose; something about wanting to show her body to her bodyguard. Maybe she was better off not telling Polly about it. Everything she said in her therapy sessions was supposed to be confidential, but Kaira suspected that Polly, like a parrot, repeated everything to El Genius. She had no privacy-not in her hotel room, not even in her own thoughts. The problem was that, except for Polly, there wasn't anybody on the tour she could talk to. Certainly not her mother. And not her doofus bodyguard. The guys in her band were all at least forty years old, and treated her like she was a snot-nosed little kid. The backup singers were in their late twenties, but they seemed to resent her being the center of attention. The only time she felt at peace was when she was singing. Then it was just her and the song and everybody else just disappeared. Her concert tour would take her to a total of fifty-four cities, so she wasn't even half done yet. She was now on the southern swing. From Atlanta they'd be going to Jacksonville, then Miami, Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville, Little Rock, and Baton Rouge, and on to Texas: Houston, Austin, and Dallas. Originally the tour was supposed to include San Antonio instead of Austin, but that was changed at the last minute due to a monster truck rally at the Alamodome-not that Kaira cared, or even knew about the change. Other people took care of things like that. Other people took care of everything. Kaira had accidentally left Pillow behind in New Haven, and Aileen, the tour's travel coordinator, took a flight back to Connecticut and personally searched the hotel laundry until she found it. _ _ _ Kaira emerged from the bathroom thirty minutes later wearing a hotel robe. She called room service and ordered a glass of orange juice, pancakes, a cappuccino, and French fries. It would have to last her until the concert. If she tried to eat before the concert she'd puke. After a concert she usually had a bowl of ice cream. She got dressed, then stepped back out to the sitting area. Fred, her doofus bodyguard, was still there, going through her mail. "As soon as I turn eighteen, you're going to be the second person I fire." Fred didn't even look up. It wasn't the first time he'd heard it. The television was on CNN. Kaira changed the station to the Cartoon Network. The first person she'd fire would be El Genius. He was her business manager and agent, and also happened to be married to her mother. They had gotten married shortly before the tour. His real name was Jerome Paisley, but he actually wanted people to call him El Genius. No matter how hard Kaira tried to sound sarcastic when she used that name, he always took it as a compliment. Her father had been killed in Iraq. His name was John Spears. Kaira's real name was Kathy Spears, but there was already a famous singer with that last name. El Genius had come up with the name Kaira DeLeon. "You mean like Ponce de León?" Kaira had asked him. "Who?" Some genius. Kaira explained to the genius who Ponce de León was, which was why her first CD was titled The Fountain of Youth El Genius thought it looked classy for DeLeon to be spelled as one word, with a capital letter in the middle. Kaira had learned all about Ponce de León when she was in fourth grade and living at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. She had to learn the history of Florida. By year's end she was living at Fort Myer, where they'd been studying the history of Virginia all year. She had never spent an entire school year in the same place. "So, anything from Billy Boy?" she asked Fred. Fred shook his head. "Aw, too bad," Kaira said. "He writes such charming letters." "It's not funny," said Fred. "I think it's hilarious," said Kaira. She sang, "Oh, where have you been, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Oh, where have you been, charming Billy? " Billy Boy had sent her four letters so far. He told her he thought she was lovely, she sang like a bird, and someday he would kill her. El Genius hired Fred after the first letter. Kaira wouldn't have been surprised if El Genius had actually written the letters, to scare her into staying confined to her hotel room. He was such a control freak. She was sure Fred told him everything she did. "You got another marriage proposal," Fred said. "White or black?" A photograph had been sent with he letter. Fred looked at it. "White," he said. "What is it with you guys?" asked Kaira. It was her seventh proposal, and every one had been from a white man. Fred carefully put the letter and the photograph in a plastic bag. "What are you doing that for?" "FBI." "He said he wanted to marry me, not kill me," Kaira pointed out. "For some people, it's the same thing," said Fred. Kaira glanced at him, surprised. The Doofus had actually said something kind of profound. "Let me see what he looks like?" Fred handed her the plastic bag. Kaira laughed when she saw the picture. "He looks like you!" The photograph was that of a very muscular man wearing no shirt. The only difference between him and Fred was that his hair was long and wavy, while Fred had a buzz cut. "You ought to grow your hair out," Kaira told him as she handed the plastic bag back to him. Seven marriage proposals, and she'd never had a boyfriend. From the Hardcover edition. Excerpted from Small Steps by Louis Sachar All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

This companion to Holes follows a former detainee at Camp Green Lake Juvenile Correctional Facility (where he was sent after a spilled-popcorn-mishap-turned brawl at a cinema), in his life on the outside. Armpit now works for a landscape company while he finishes up high school. The earnest teen is back on track, in no small part due to the mutually restorative friendship he has forged with Ginny, a 10-year-old neighbor born with cerebral palsy. This bright, perceptive girl has given Armpit a great deal ("For the first time in his life, there was someone who looked up to him, who cared about him") and has "released him from his anger." X-Ray, another Camp Green Lake alum, nearly derails Armpit's new life when he convinces Armpit to buy into a ticket-scalping scheme for a concert by teen rock star Kaira-a scheme that goes horribly awry. In a rather contrived plot twist, Armpit winds up meeting Kaira who then falls for Armpit-and he for her. Even less likely is the novel's final, sensational melodrama (Kaira's evil stepfather and manager futilely tries to murder her and frame Armpit for the crime). Sachar does inject some credible intrigue here (notably surrounding the potential legal consequences of Armpit's and X-Ray's involvement in the ticket scam) and effectively emphasizes the importance of taking "small steps." Unfortunately, although Armpit's steady small steps result in some big strides, this is a disappointingly flat spin-off of Sachar's resonant Newbery winner. Ages 10-up. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-8-Now that all the boys at Camp Green Lake have stopped digging Holes (Farrar, 1998), Louis Sachar tells how one of the former inmates is taking Small Steps (Delacorte, 2006) to get his life back on track. In this sequel to Sachar's Newbery Award-winning novel about a correctional facility gone wrong, Armpit, a powerfully built African American is working, going back to school, and trying to avoid the angry outbursts that landed him in juvenile detention. The Texas teen is doing well and he's even befriended his ten-year-old neighbor, Ginny, who has cerebral palsy. Then another former inmate, X-Ray, convinces him to invest his savings in a legal, but less than savory, concert ticket scalping scheme. After a slow start, the two young men make money and Armpit, a.k.a Theodore, invites Ginny to see teen songstress Kaira DeLeon at the concert. But when X-Ray gives him counterfeit tickets and Ginny has a seizure, it looks like Armpit is back in trouble. Fortunately, the young singer invites the pair back stage and starts to fall for Armpit. Everything looks "cool" when Kaira invites him to her San Francisco concerts, but Armpit is about to be framed by the teen star's unscrupulous manager and an embezzling assistant. Armpit shows his courage as the story heats up and moves to its lesson-learned conclusion. Narrator Curtis McClarin is solidly believable as a hip teen, an authoritative adult, and a speech-impaired child. Beneath the story's humorous dialogue and some beyond-your-wildest dreams scenarios, Small Steps acknowledges the realities of ex-inmate life and the value of doing the right thing. A wise choice for all middle school and public libraries.-Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 5-8. In rougher days, Armpit, named for an ill-placed scorpion bite, bullied a new member of his work-camp team. That kid was Stanley Yelnats, whose travails in Holes earned Sachar a 1998 Newbery Medal and National Book Award. Though Armpit is now 17, the tone of his experiences remains squarely middle-grade, and like Stanley, he proves an appealing, hapless character buffeted by others' schemes and shouldering the burdens of personal history--in this case, the bruisingly real challenges facing an African American teenager with a criminal history. Armpit takes his counselor's suggestions seriously (Just take small steps and keep moving forward ), but he nonetheless becomes entangled in returning character X-Ray's concert ticket-scalping enterprise, resulting in a serendipitous meeting with a bubble-gum pop star and an awkward role in a police investigation. This is both less experimental and less streamlined than Holes; Armpit's bond with a girl with cerebral palsy, for instance, often seems too clearly intended to reveal his soft heart. Even so, Holes fans will be thrilled by the tightening of the plot elements to a single, suspenseful point, and they will eagerly follow the sometimes stumbling, sometimes sprinting progress of Sachar's fallible yet heroic protagonist. To learn more about the author's decision to mine Holes for new inspiration, see the adjacent Story behind the Story feature. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2006 Booklist

Horn Book Review

(Middle School) Although Sachar ended Holes (rev. 9/98) with the tease that ""you will have to fill in the holes yourself,"" here is a sequel of sorts, as Stanley Yelnats's fellow Camp Green Lake inmates Armpit and X-Ray attempt to make their way in the world after being sprung. Armpit is working for a landscaping company and just wants to save his money and keep his nose clean, but X-Ray remains the perennial hustler and talks his old campmate into a ticket-scalping scheme. The tickets are for a concert by one Kaira DeLeon, a Beyonc+-like teen idol whose life -- alert the media -- isn't nearly as glamorous as it looks. Armpit and X-Ray aside, Small Steps is no Holes, and while it would probably be impossible for a sequel to approach that book's genius, this one yields to the first on all counts and fails on its own terms as well: the writing is flat, the characterization (as in the case of Armpit's best friend, a plucky disabled girl) is stereotypical, the plotting is formulaic, and the crime-doesn't-pay theme is shopworn. Fans of teen soap operas might enjoy the romance between Armpit and Kaira, but it's pretty tame stuff; Holes fans will just find it icky. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

After a hiatus of some seven years, Sachar returns with a companion to Holes (1998) that places one of Stanley's fellow "campers" on center stage. Armpit is living with his parents in Austin, having set for himself five rehabilitative "small steps:" "1. Graduate from high school. 2. Get a job. 3. Save his money. 4. Avoid situations that may become violent. And 5. Lose the name Armpit." When fellow ex-camper X-Ray persuades him to join him in a scheme scalping tickets for a Kaira DeLeon concert, steps 1-4 are severely threatened--step 5 seeming to be permanently out of reach. Armpit is a genuinely sympathetic character, as is the teen singing phenom Kaira; the third-person narrative shifts focus from one to the other as their paths inexorably, and incredibly, draw closer and closer. If Holes invoked Vonnegut in its narrative complexity and deadpan delivery, this offering more closely resembles more straightforward crime fiction. Although readers may find themselves missing the tricky layers of its predecessor, any novel in which the good guys so righteously win should be happily welcomed in its own right. (Fiction. 12+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.