Louis Sachar’s Small Steps is a young adult sequel to Holes, and it follows the storyline of Theodore “Armpit” Johnson after he returns home from Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention and Correctional Facility. Small Steps was published on January 10, 2006.
In Small Steps, Armpit has returned to Austin and is working towards completing "small steps," goals that he’s set for himself to avoid recidivism. These include graduating from high school, getting a job, saving money, avoiding situations that might turn violent, and losing the name Armpit. When Armpit decides to collaborate with X-Ray, his friend from Camp Green Lake, on a ticket scalping scheme, his life quickly turns upside down. He gets swept up in the world of pop star Kaira DeLeon after meeting her at her concert and they begin a whirlwind romance. Entering Kaira’s world offers Armpit respite from the discrimination and prejudice he faces in his everyday life as a broadly built black male with a criminal record, but it poses new issues. Armpit is drawn into an ongoing investigation to find the ticket scalpers who sold him fake Kaira DeLeon tickets, and he’s trying to hide the scheme was his and X-Ray's. Meanwhile, Kaira’s stepfather and business manager El Genius is embezzling money from Kaira and plans to murder her and pin it on Armpit. After Armpit saves Kaira from El Genius’s murder attempt, he’s praised as a hero and the ticket scalping investigation is dropped. Armpit reevaluates his life and sets new small steps for himself: graduate from high school, attend two years of Austin Community College and do well enough to transfer to the University of Texas to study occupational therapy to help people like his friend with cerebral palsy, and finally: don’t do anything stupid and lose the name Armpit.
Small Steps depicts an ex-convict trying to rebuild his life despite the roadblocks that get in his way. It explores themes of race, self-control, recidivism, ego, exclusion, fame, and duplicity. Small Steps has been adapted for theater by Louis Sachar, composer Karl Mansfield, and actress Ellora Vilkin and debuted in April and May of 2021 at Oregon's Children's Theater.
