Holes by Louis Sachar

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Holesby Louis Sachar

• Chapter Summaries 1 to 16

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Chapter 1 Camp Green Lake

• Introduced to Camp Green Lake
• The only place where there is shade is between
  two trees where there is a hammock. The hammock
  belongs to the Warden
• Camp Green Lake seems dangerous there are
  rattlesnakes and scorpions hide worst of all is
  the yellow-spotted lizard

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Chapter 2 Stanley Yelnats

• Camp Green Lake is where bad boys are sent to dig
  holes (its supposed to be good for them)
• Novels protagonist Stanley Yelnats
• Stanley has high hopes for CGL (hopes it will be
  like a summer camp)

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Chapter 3 Stanleys Past

• Stanley rides to CGL on a bus with an armed
  guard he has little with him
• Stanley is overweight and has been bullied
• Stanley was arrested for a crime he did not
  commit
• Stanleys family seems to attract bad luck (but
  they have a habit of blaming Stanley's
  no-good-dirty-rotten- pig-stealing-great-great-gra
  ndfather) a family legend suggests they are
  cursed (gypsy curse)
• Stanleys father is an inventor
• Stanleys great grandfather made a fortune
• on the stock market but was robbed by
• Kissin' Kate Barlow

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Chapter 4 Arrival

• Stanley arrives at CGL he sees few signs of life
• Stanley meets Mr Sir he is stripped, and
  allocated two sets of orange jumpsuits, orange
  T-shirts, yellow socks, and one towel
• CGLs regime of hole digging is explained to him
• Mr Sir explains that his gun is used for the
  yellow-spotted lizards (and not the kids)
• Mr Sir asks Stanley if he is thirsty and when
  Stanley responds that he is, Mr. Sir tells him to
  get used to it

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Chapter 5 Tent D

• Stanley is assigned to Tent D with Mr Pendanski
  as his counsellor Mr Pendanski warns Stanley not
  to upset the Warden
• Stanley meets Rex and Alan (X-Ray and Squid) the
  campers are very dirty
• X-Ray wears glasses (hence, his nickname) and
  asks what happened to Barf Bag (Mr. Pendanski
  replies that he is in the hospital and will not
  be returning)
• Stanley is shown his cot, which previously
  belonged to Barf Bag.
• Other campers arrive José/Magnet,
  Theodore/Armpit, and Ricky/Zigzag
• Zero is the last boy that Stanley meets Mr.
  Pendanski claims that Zero has nothing inside his
  head
• Mr. Pendanski asks everyone to help Stanley get
  adjusted to the camp (and then leaves)
• Stanley asks Theodore where he can find water and
  Theodore reacts violently (says his name is
  Armpit)

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Chapter 6 Stanleys Crime

• Stanley takes a cold and quick shower and eats a
  disgusting dinner
• Another camper asks him what he got in trouble
  for Stanley tells him that he stole a pair of
  sneakers from Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston. No
  one believes him.
• Later, Stanley thinks back to how he came to be
  arrested
• Stanley has been bullied at school as a result,
  he missed the bus home while he was walking, a
  pair of shoes had fallen from the sky he was
  keen to give them to his father, so he started
  running because he was running, a police car
  pulled him over and took the shoes

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Chapter 7 First Hole and Madame Zeroni

• Stanley has a hard time digging his first hole
  he quickly develops painful blisters on his hands
• More of Stanley's family history is revealed
• Stanley's great-great-grandfather was from Latvia
  and his name was Elya Yelnats
• Elya was in love with a girl called Myra but
  needs a pig to win her hand
• Elya visits his friend Madame Zeroni, an old
  Egyptian woman with only one foot
• Madame Zeroni thinks Myra is a waste of space,
  and advises Elya to go to America instead. He
  refuses, so Madame Zeroni gives him a small pig
  to look after, as well as a list of instructions
  about how to make to pig grow (involving singing
  a song to it and carrying it up a mountain to a
  strange stream)
• (continued over)

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• Elya follows the instructions, and the pig grows
• He eventually decides that Myra is stupid and
  gets on a boat bound for America, forgetting his
  promise to Madame Zeroni (to sing to her, and
  take her to the stream)
• Elya never forgets Madame Zeronis song (about a
  woodpecker and a wolf who wish their life was
  easier) and passes it on to his son, the first
  Stanley Yelnats
• Bad luck seems to follow for the family Elya
  begins to believe that Madame Zeroni has cursed
  him

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Chapter 8 Yellow-spotted Lizard

• The dangerous yellow-spotted lizard is described
• Yellow-green body with eleven yellow spots
• Black teeth and white tongues
• Like to live in holes
• Can leap out of even very deep holes in order to
  attack their prey
• Like to eat small animals, insects,
• cactus thorns and sunflower seeds

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Chapter 9 Wreck/Rec Room

• Stanley is exhausted after digging his first hole
• He returns to camp and enters the recreation
  room everyone calls it the wreck room and
  everything in it is broken
• Stanley bumps into a large boy who tries to pick
  a fight with him Stanley tries to avoid the
  fight and X-Ray and Armpit come to his rescue
  saying, "You don't want to mess with the Caveman"
• Stanley, Armpit, Squid, and X-Ray talk about the
  trouble with digging holes
• Stanley sits down to write a letter to his
  mother Squid reacts negatively to this (scowls)
• In his letter, Stanley tells his mother he is
  having fun and swimming a lot
• Zero approaches and asks Stanley, "Did the shoes
  have red X's on the back?"
• Stanley realises that his nickname is Caveman

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Chapter 10 Second Hole

• Stanley's second hole is also very hard to dig
• He finds a fossil fish Stanley shows the fish
  fossil to Mr. Pendanski but Mr. Pendanski says
  that the fossil is not what the Warden wants.
• When the water truck comes Stanley notices that
  there is always an order to the line, with X-Ray
  followed by Armpit, Squid, Zigzag, Magnet, Zero,
  and then Stanley

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Chapter 11 X-Ray

• X-Ray asks Stanley to give him anything else
  interesting that he might find
• Stanley agrees because he wants X-Ray to like him
• Stanley wonders why everyone follows what X-Ray
  does he realizes that X-Ray is the smallest boy
  apart from Zero and that he, Stanley, is actually
  the largest boy

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Chapter 12 Mr. Pendanski and Zero

• Stanley gets back to the camp late
• Mr. Pendanski is talking with the boys he asks
  each boy what he wants to do as a career
• Mr. Pendanski suggests even Zero is not totally
  worthless and then asks Zero what he would like
  to do when he leaves CGL Zero is silent at
  first but then he replies that he likes digging
  holes

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Chapter 13 Discovery

• Stanley finds a small gold tube with a heart
  engraved on it inside are the initials KB
• Stanley gives X-Ray the tube
• X-Ray keeps the tube until the next day so that
  if the Warden likes what he has found he can get
  the whole day off instead of just an hour
• When the water line forms, X-Ray tells Stanley to
  move up one place in line, ahead of Zero

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Chapter 14 The Warden

• The next morning, X-Ray pretends to find the gold
  tube Mr Pendanski goes to inform the Warden
• The Warden is a tall woman with red hair and
  freckles she wears a cowboy hat and black cowboy
  boots studded with turquoise stones
• X-Ray is given the day off
• Mr Pendanski is ordered to fill the canteens for
  the boys again when he replies that he has just
  filled them, the Warden is angered and tells Mr
  Pendanski to fill them without questioning her
  authority

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Chapter 15 X-Rays Hole

• The Warden orders Zero to dig X-Ray's hole and
  Stanley to sift through the dirt that Zero digs
  she puts two boys on every hole, one to dig and
  the other to sift
• All of the boys are promised a double shower and
  the day off if they find anything
• Stanley wonders how the Warden knew he was called
  Caveman and Zigzag tells him that the Warden has
  small hidden cameras and microphones all around
  the camp
• Stanley realises that the Warden in looking for
  something (hence, the digging) he makes a mental
  note of the location of the hole that he found
  the gold tube in

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Chapter 16 Relationships

• The next day the Warden follows the boys to their
  holes
• Stanley wonders what the gold tube might have
  been
• The Warden grows tired and orders Mr Sir to make
  the boys work faster nothing is found
• Later, in the wreckroom, Stanley receives a
  letter from his mother Armpit and Squid taunt
  Stanley about the letter, but X-Ray defends him
• Stanley relates a funny thing his mother wrote to
  Zero, who is still in the wreck room but Zero
  doesnt get it Zero also doesnt get Stanleys
  reference to Sesame Street