Stanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck, so he isn't too surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to a boys' juvenile detention centre. At Camp Green Lake the boys must dig a hole a day, five feet deep, five feet across, in the dried up lake bed. The Warden claims the labour is character building, but it is a lie. Stanley must dig up the truth.

'Written with a crystalline prose and simplicity of style it is startlingly original. There is not one false sentence' The Independent on Sunday

'This is a story of friendship with the cleverest of plot twists, and descriptions so vivid you can feel the heat of Stanley's desert prison burning off the page. A total must-read' The Times

'An exceptionally funny and generous book that is also a tightly plotted detective novel' The Guardian

 
I'm very much looking forward to reading this BBC Big Read book, as it comes highly recommended by my cousin Elinor. When the list was first released she was stunned I hadn't read it. I have to admit that many of the books I'm really looking forward to reading on the list are, like this one, children's books. I'm looking forward to finding out if it lives up to the hype.