Holes
Now Playing: Blog 8
The main character in the story is Stanley Yelnats. He is a boy who gets framed for a crime and is sent off to a camp which he thinks will be fun. But he’s wrong. At the beginning of the story Stanley is an overweight, shy boy who is very self-conscious of himself. After his experience at camp he has changed like you wouldn’t believe. Digging all of those holes helped him to lose weight and to become stronger physically and mentally. At first the kids picked on him and he felt even worse about himself but in the end, he was a lot more confident with himself. His personality is very… different. At first he’s kind of a weirdo but he later becomes a little bit better. He is kind of shy and timid, but outspoken at some times. Stanley is very brave and bold in the ending parts of the movie. He stood up for Zero and ran off to go and help him and he even tried to steal the water truck to bring some water to his poor thirsty friend.
The novel is about lifelong lessons like friendship and courage and other things like that. In this book Stanley learns to make friends and be happy with himself. He learns that in the end, things will all turn out okay. Like how he found out who Zero’s mom was and they found the buried treasure that was put there by Kissing Kate Barlow. Stanley’s dad found out how to get rid of nasty foot odor and they found out that Stanley really wasn’t a criminal and didn’t steal those shoes. So in the end, everything worked out just perfectly.
The main setting of this story is at Camp Green Lake, a camp that was once lake and now it’s a vast desert filled with holes. This setting sets the novel and makes a perfect place to have a boy’s camp to discipline them and set them straight. The days are always hot and dry and there’s no water other than at this camp for 1000 miles. (Except for on God’s thumb which only Stanley and Zero know about.) So even if you do escape from the camp, you won’t make it very far. I think that this story takes place during this time period since the clothes they wear are pretty modern. But it might be a little earlier considering the car that the Warden has. But then again it could just be an old car that she bought in the 21st century.
The climax of the story would have to be when Zero and Stanley run away. First, Zero runs away after hitting Mr. Pendansky in the face with a shovel! Then Stanley takes the water truck and tries to drive it to Zero who is probably parched of thirst. But, he runs it straight into a hole. Go figure. So then Stanley gets out of the truck and runs away from camp in the direction Zero had headed the day before. Now when they find each other, Stanley tells Zero they have to get to the top of God’s Thumb so that they will survive because that was the way this his Great Great Grandfather survived out in that very same desert. So they did. At the top of the hill were a freshwater stream and a huge patch of onions. After they were ready to go they decided to go back to camp to find that treasure where Stanley had really found the lipstick tube. Then, when they return to that same hole, they dig and dig and dig and finally they find a suitcase with Stanley’s name on it. The owners of the camp find them with it but can’t get to it because the 2 boys are surrounded by yellow-spotted lizards, which don’t attack them because they ate onions for a week, straight. So then Stanley and Zero get to go home and those are the 2 biggest climaxes of this book.
I think the author wrote this story to tell people about fate. Although Stanley always believes that he is unlucky and in the wrong place at the wrong time, the events in the book seem to be the result of fate's reunification of members of the Yelnats and Zeroni families for the mutual benefit of both parties. Each coincidence in the book, including the shoes that Hector stole flying off the hood of a parked car and hitting Stanley on the head, is so unpredictable and unlikely that it appears fate is the determining factor in these characters' lives.
On a scale of 1-10 I give this book a… 7. I liked it a lot, but to me it was kind of confusing at times. I really like how in the end the whole thing ties together and everything works out fine, including Stanley making a friend and his friend Hector finds his mom and they become filthy rich on top of it! I recommend this book to anyone who likes a book that teaches good morals and a book with a happy ending. I know I do.

Holes
Now Playing: Blog 7
Let's take Stanley Yelnats for example. In his pocket he would have a bunch of dirt from the sand out in the desert where he digs holes, shower tokens to put in the shower to give him only a short amount of time to wash off in freezing cold water, letters he writes or get from his mom while hes at camp, some crumpled up sheets of paper with writing on it from when Stanley tried to teach Zero to read, and some of the buried treasure he found in the chest buried by Kissing Kate Bartlow; the treasure she stole from his Great Great Grandfather. If Stanley were to carry a bag, i think it would be some kind of a hiking bag or backpack because he's always on the go at Camp Green Lake and even at home he's always really busy.

Holes
Now Playing: Blog
The conflict in the novel is man vs. environment, man vs. self, and man vs. man.Man vs. environment is between stanley and the hot, dry climate of camp greenlake. There are tons of rattlesnakes and yellow-spotted lizards that he also has to look out for. An example of man vs. self is how Stanley has to overcome himself and keep his head on straight in the extremely hot sun. The conflict man vs. man is about how Stanley never gets along with Mr. Pendansky and at first he doesn't get along with the other campers but then he learns to make friends and it makes the whole camp experience a whole better. I think that Stanley will get out of the camp after they find out he isn't guilty.

Holes
Now Playing: Blog 6
During the scene when Zero gets called dumb and he runs away I wonder what Mr. Pendansky is thinking. If i were him i would be so worried about Zero but mostly about my job. After Zero had ran away, Mr. Pendansky and the other people that run the camp got rid of all his files to make it seem like he wasnt there. I bet Mr. Pendansky is very worried about someone finding out and him losing his job.

Holes
Now Playing: Blog 5
This book takes place at a camp called Camp Green Lake mostly where stanley stays. Until one day, Zero hits Mr. Pendansky with a shovel after he makes fun of Zero for being stupid, Zero takes off for the mountains in the distance. So then the next day,Stanley tries to steal the water truck and drive it to zero because he figures he would be really thirsty, but he drives it into a hole and runs away too. Then he finds Zero and they go walk to the top of God's Thumb, a big mountain that looks like a thumb. At the top there is water and onions that they ate plain! Gross! So then they went back to camp to find the treasure.When they find it, the camp warden and Mr. Pendansky find them and try to get it but cant because they are surrouded by yellow-spotted lizards in a hole. The lizards arent bitting stanley or zero because they ate those onions. Then Stanley gets to leave because he was found guilty and want to take Zero with him and so they go home and find Zero's mom who is Madam Zeroni who was the one who put the curse on Stanley's family. So the significant places in this story are God's thumb and Camp Green Lake becuase they helped break the curse on his family and make new friends.

Holes
Now Playing: Blog 4
" A lot of people don't believe in curses. A lot of people don't believe in yellow-spotted lizards either, but if one bites you, it doesn't make a difference whether you believe in it or not." This quote, to me, means that whether or not the reader believes in curses or not, the bad luck on their family is unavoidable. Maybe this curse also means that the lizard's bite is deadly and so is the family curse.
"His muscles and hands weren't the only parts of his body that had toughened over the past several weeks. His heart had hardened as well." I think that this is another important quote describing the way Stanley is changing from being at Camp Green Lake. He is becoming more like the tough people around him who have been at this camp for years and now he is starting to act like them. Which is not a good thing.

Holes
Now Playing: Blog 3
Stanley is probably one of my favorite, best known characters. He is an overweight boy who doesn't have any friends from school and is often picked on by his classmates and the school bully, Derrick Dunne. As I already told you, his family is cursed but they always find a way to make the best of things the way they are. This bad luck has got Stanley into a jam tho. He got accused of a crime he didn't commit. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stanley is a very self concious person but he isn't easily depressed which makes things a little easier at camp.

Holes
Now Playing: Blog 2
The story all starts off talking about the camp that the main character, Stanley Yelnats, has to go to after he is tried for a crime. Camp Green Lake is its name. Notice how it has the word "lake" in it. But let me tell you, it's far from it. Camp Green Lake used to be a lake about a hundred years ago it dried up and the people who lived by it, moved away. Now the only thing for miles is that camp and a huge dry, barren land filled with holes. In this area there are many dangers, such as rattlesankes, scorpions, and worst of all, the yellow-spotted lizards. One bite from one of those lizards and you die a slow and painful death. As Stanley heads to the camp in an old bus accompanied by a guard with a gun, he starts to think that this camp might not be so much like a fun summer camp after all. Stanley is also scared that he won't make any friends. Back at home he is always teased about his weight. Stanley was sure he would have a hard time at this camp. He and his family had the worst luck imaginable and it was all because of his no-good-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. His grandfather had stolen a pig from a Gypsy who had one leg and so she put a curse on the whole family. Stanley's father is an inventor but he has no luck. The first Stanley Yelnats made a fortune in the stock market. Then, he was robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow. She was an outlaw who kissed every person she killed. But, she didn't kiss Stanley's great grandfather because she didn't kill him. So now instead of living in a mansion in California, Stanley is stuck in an apartment in Texas that smells like burning rubber and foot odor due to the fact that his dad is trying to invent a way to recycle old shoes. As the next pages start, stanley is just getting to Camp Green Lake but he can't see anything green for miles and miles.

Holes
Now Playing: Blog 1
Holes
By Louis Sachar

1998, published by:Farrar, Straus and Giroux
-I picked this novel because my sister read it for a class and said it was really good.
-The novel really didn't give me very many clues about the book. From looking at it, I could guess that it was about a boy digging holes.

Summary
Now Playing: pgs 181-end of the book
The main character of the story is Theresa. Over the story she changes dramatically. At the beginning of the story she was a little bit timid after finding out her husband cheated on her. She was just a single mother with one son. At the end of the story she becomes madly in love with a man named Garrett and I'm not going to tell you the ending though because it will ruin the surprise but she is definately a changed woman by the end of the story. She is definately a static character in this story.
The novel is about a woman who finds not one, not two, but three messages in bottles. She takes the information she gathers, after making some phone calls and doing some research, and finds the man who wrote it and finds him in his hometown. They meet, fall madly in love, and are split apart in some way but I'm not going to tell you how because you have to read it to find out.
The story takes place in Boston and Wilmington. The setting is mainly along the coast of these two cities along the beaches. The characters in the theme relate to the setting since Garrett is a scuba instructor.I think the time period of this novel is probably around like present time since everything seems to be like now days with the e-mail and fax machines and other technology like that.
The climax of the novel is when Theresa is leaving Garrett for good but she doesnt want to. And it's pouring rain outside and he chases after her car as she drives away. Also another small climax would be when Theresa finds out the Garrett died and when she reads the letter he wrote to Catherine and the letter he wrote to her(Theresa).It said about how he had moved on from Catherine and had fallen in love with another woman, Theresa.The author wrote this story to tell the reader a good love story. I rate this story a 9 or 10 just because I really like love stories. I also like the author who also wrote the story The Notebook which is one of my all-time favorite movies. I recommend this book to all girls who like cute love stories or any guys who like them as well.