If you go down to the woods today ... Well, every child knows NOT to, don’t they?

Tamaya is on a scholarship to the prestigious Woodridge Academy and every day she and seventh-grader Marshall walk to school together. They never go through the woods. And when they arrive at school they stop talking to each other – because Marshall can’t be seen to be friends with a little kid like Tamaya. Especially not with Chad around. Chad-the-bully, who makes Marshall’s life utterly miserable. But today, hoping to avoid Chad, Marshall and Tamaya decide to go through the woods ... And what is waiting there for them is strange, sinister and entirely unexpected.

The next day, Chad doesn't turn up at school – no one knows where he is, not even his family. And Tamaya's arm is covered in a horribly, burning, itchy wound. As two unlikely heroes set out to rescue their bully, the town is about to be turned upside down by the mysterious Fuzzy Mud ...

About Louis Sachar:

Louis Sachar lives in Austin, Texas, where he writes his novels and plays quite a lot of bridge. His novel Holes has sold over 1.5 million copies in the Bloomsbury edition alone and Louis is the recipient of many of the world's best regarded book prizes, including the National Book Award and the Newbery Award.
Holes was the first Liverpool City Read title and won the Sheffield Book Award in the UK.