Beloved Young Adult Author of ‘Holes’ Fame Releases First Adult Fiction Novel originally appeared on Parade.
If you grew up in the ’80s or ’90s, chances are you spent some time at Camp Green Lake or rode the elevator (the one that only goes up) to the 30th floor of Wayside School.
Now Louis Sachar, 71, the much-adored children’s book writer who gave us literary classics like Holes and the Wayside School series, is embarking on a new literary adventure – his first novel for adults. This is a huge milestone for the celebrated author, who has captured the hearts of generations of young readers.
“It’s like I’ve suddenly become famous again,” Sachar said in a June interview with The Booksellar, regarding his new novel for adults. “All the kids who read my books are now in positions of being critics, reviewers, publishers or booksellers. When I was starting out, the people in power had their favourites, and now I’m the one they look at and remember from their childhood.”
Sachar’s novel for adults, The Magician of Tiger Castle, opens in the present with a jaded, immortal magician, Anatole, who takes the reader back to his memories of Renaissance Italy, when Princess Tullia of Esquaveta was supposed to marry a prince from a nearby village for political reasons. Instead, she fell for a scribe, leading her father, the King, to hire Anatole to intervene, forcing the magician to choose between loyalty to the kingdom and the princess.
Originally, Sachar intended the story to be a young adult novel. As he delved deeper into his characters, though, he saw a different path.
“It’s not a good idea to have a 40-year old-man, desperate to save his career, as the main character of a book for young people,” he told People Magazine in 2024, “so I decided to refocus and turn this into a novel for adults — though perhaps those adults who still had a place in their hearts for the Wayside School books, or Holes.”
Long before he was a household name in classrooms and libraries all over the world, Sachar was attending Hastings College of Law. In 1978, while still a law student, he published his first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School. The eccentric antics of the outlandish class of characters–in every sense of the word–turned the book into an instant classic, and led to a four-book series and a TV show, launching his storied career as a novelist.
As of 2019, the “Wayside” series had sold over 15 million copies nationwide, according to Publisher’s Weekly, and, with the exception of a short period of time after its original Chicago publisher folded, has never been out of print.
“Wayside” is certainly a crowd-pleaser, but Sachar’s true claim to fame is Holes, his 1998 standalone novel about a wrongfully convicted teenage boy who is sent to a harsh juvenile detention center in Texas, where he is forced to dig holes for treasure – and instead digs up the key to freedom for him and his new friends. The novel won a Newberry Medal, National Book Award, and was adapted into a Disney movie starring Shia LaBeouf that grossed over $67 million.
The 71-year-old is now ready to grow up with his former-child fans. Sachar told Bookseller that he is no longer sure he can “relate to kids anymore.” However, said, “I can relate to the same people who grew up reading my books.”
The Magician of Tiger Castlewas released on Tuesday, and is now available to all Louis Sachar fans, old and new.
Beloved Young Adult Author of ‘Holes’ Fame Releases First Adult Fiction Novel first appeared on Parade on Aug 5, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 5, 2025, where it first appeared.
