Holes – Juan Jose Díaz Herrero

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Chapters 1-2
❖ What happened to the lake? And to the town and itspeople?

It dried up, now it is just a dry and flat wasteland.The town and its people shriveled with the
lake.

❖ The main character in the book is Stanley Yelnats. What do we know about
him? Stanley’s reactions to events give us insights into his character, but we
have to remember thatcharacters develop during the course of the book.What
do Stanley’s actions tell us about his character?Use photocopiable
sheetCharacterStudies.

Stanley Yelnats choiced go to Camp Green Lake at go to jail.

Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before.

❖ What is unusual about Stanley’s name?

It is a palindromic name, a palindrome name is a name that reads the same whether it is read
backward or forwards, Stanley Yelnats.

❖ Are there palindromic names inclass?

No, there aren’t.

❖ Think of palindromicwords:

Dad, mam, madam, eye, radar, level, rotor, kayak, reviver, racecar, and refer. 

❖ Highlight the two sentences that relate to the Warden. What details of
character does thisreveal?
Do you know who has forbidden campers to lie in the hammock?

Sentences:
The campers are forbidden to lie in the hammock. It belongs to the Warden. The Warden owns
the shade.

The Warden has a powerful and authority character.

No, I don’t know, I think the Warden forbade it.

❖ Read from “Here’s a good rule…”to“always”.

 Can you think of one-word sentences? Give examples.

Usually.
Stop, Begin, Go, Come.
Here.
Wait. Hurry.
Yes, No.
Help!
Thank you.
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

❖ Make a list of synonyms of“usually”.

 Frequently
 Generally
 Mostly
 Normally
 ordinarily
 regularly
 routinely
 sometimes

❖ What happens if you remove the word“usually”?

The adverb "usually" refers to what typically or normally happens, if I remove it, the meaning of the
phrase would change, the action described would be done always.

❖ Write a short piece describing an ordinary, everyday event: for example, getting
up in the morning, coming to school, lunchtime routines and so on. Of course,
you use the presentsimple.

I get up at 7 o'clock.
I have a shower at 7:10
I have breakfast at 7:30

❖ Now insert “usually” and see whathappens.

I usually get up seven o'clock.

I usually have a shower at 7:10
I usually have breakfast at 7:30

With usually, the action repeats over time, and some kind of variants happen more frequently than
others.
❖ Read it aloud in a suitably menacing tone, with dramatic pauses to heighten
effect.

❖ Do you think Stanley will decide to go to Jail or Camp GreenLake?

I don’t think, it was the only option he had not to go to jail, not that he chose it.

Chapter 3
❖ There are two interweaving stories: Staley’s story and his no-good-dirty-rotten-
pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. Create a family tree and add notes about
what each onedid.

Focus on Grammar
If only…..

EXAMPLE
I’m so weak. –I wish Iwasn’t/weren’tso weakorI wish I
was/werestronger.
(Remember always to express the opposite idea)

Wecan useWISH / IF ONLY +

SUBJECT + PAST SIMPLE to
express regretabout the present

❖ Complete thephotocopy

❖ Digit!

Chapter 4
“You are to dig a hole every day, including
Saturdaysand Sundays. Each hole must be five feet
deep, and five feet across in every direction. Your
shovel is your measuring stick”

How large is this actually? Cut the shovel on a paper in real size. Estimate how long it
might take to dig one in baked earth?

I think it could be done in 5-6 hours, but the actual task of digging the hole at the calculated rate
will be the greatest challenge.

❖ How would you feel if you were Stanley in thissituation?

I think I would be worried and scared, I would think a lot about why to make that hole. I could
think that that hole is to bury me.

Chapter 5
❖ Build a portrait of Zero on the photocopiable sheet. Look at the four sentences from
Zero’s first appearance in Chapter 5. What can we infer about Mr Pendanski as well as
Zero, and their relationship with each other from these sentences? Do you think Mr
Pendanski is a good campcounselor?

I think Mister Pendaski is making fun of Zero.

The fact that the boys call him "mom" suggests that he is like a caring family member to them,
and his desire for the other boys to help Stanley also supports this. Mr. Pendanski's explanation
of Zero's name, however, don't suggests any good.

❖ Why does Mr. Pendanski insist on using everyone’s proper names, and the boys insist
on their nicknames?

He prefers to use the names their parents gave them, because they are the names that society
will recognize them by when they return to become useful and hardworking members of society.

The boys insist on their nicknames because by refusing to be called by their given names, it
seems that the boys are cutting themselves off from their lives outside the camp, an by naming
themselves they are capable of deciding on their own identity and differentiating themselves
from every other boy who digs the same holes every day.

Chapter 6

❖ Imagine you are Stanley’s, telling the story of the events leading up to his
conviction to an impartial listener. What do we know about Stanley so far?
What are the facts of the story? What assumptions have beenmade?

Chapter 7

❖ What adjectives can you use to describe Myra and her father?

❖ “Elya said nothing”Why did he do this? Why didn’t Elya pick a number? How
does Elya feel? What will Elya do next?

Yellow-spotted lizards
Name: Features: Where do they live?
What do they eat?
❖ Almost at the end of Chapter 7 there is a passage about Zero. Does it develop our
understanding of Zero?

Chapter 8

Yellow-spotted lizards
❖ Complete the card with its characteristics and then sketch your version
inactualsize.

❖ Do yellow-spotted lizards, such as the ones in this book,exist?

❖ Who else eats sunflowerseeds?

Chapter 9

❖ The “Rec(reation) Room” was really a “Wreck Room”. Why might the boys
break everything in a room that is designed for their recreation?

Chapter 10

❖ Stanley’s fossil does not qualify as “interesting”. How does he feel about this?

Chapter 12

❖ Is Mr Pendanski’s approach right, to encourage the boys?

❖ Are the boys taking the counseling session seriously? What is the evidence for
this?

Chapter 13

❖ How does Stanley’s acceptance into the gang continue?

Chapter 14-18

❖ Were you surprised to discover the Warden was female?

❖ How does she treat Mr Pendanski?

❖ What else do we find out about Zero?

Dilemma (Chapter 19)
Stanley is yet again in the wrong place at the wrong time
❖ What would be the consequences of lying or telling the truth about this
incident?
Discuss:
o Stealing is wrong, being loyal to friends is right- but when that friend has
stolen? Should Stanley tell the truth or accept theblame?
o Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is a theme of the book. What might
be going through Stanley’s head as he rides in the truck to the Warden’s hut?
o Imagine the Warden is absent when Stanley arrives and he is told to writethe
facts down. Produce two versions. One admitting to stealing , one telling the truth.

Chapters 19-22

❖ Consider the encounter with the Warden. Is her reaction what you would
expect?

❖ Why is she punishing Mr Sir and not Stanley?

❖ Who has dug Stanley’s hole in his absence? How do you know?

Flashback:
❖ What do we learn about Zero’s aptitude when Stanley starts teaching him?

till lying in his cot, Stanley also thinks about Derrick Dunne, a bully who used to pick on him in school.
Derrick was much smaller than Stanley, so his teachers found it funny that a little kid could pick on a
bigger kid, and no one did anything to help Stanley. Not cool.
The day Stanley was arrested was actually a Derrick-filled day: the bully had taken Stanley's notebook
and dropped it in a toilet, and Stanley had to fish it out. Gross. And what's worse, it made him miss the
bus, which meant he had to walk home.

While he was walking home because he miss the bus, the sneakers fell from the sky (well, from a
freeway overpass) and hit him on the head.

Stanley didn't know the shoes belonged to Clyde Livingston, but he thought there was something special
about them. It was as if they were a sign from God, and they would be the key to his father's recycling
project.

Stanley was running home, he didn'tn know why he was running, maybe he was in a hurry to bring the
shoes to his father, or maybe he was trying to run away from his miserable and humiliating day at school,
when a police car pulled up beside him. Turns out the shoes had been stolen from a homeless shelter
nearby, where they were going to be auctioned off at an expensive charity dinner that night. Clyde
Livingston – who had once lived at the shelter – was going to be at the dinner signing autographs, and
his donated shoes were expected to raise a lot of money for the homeless.
Stanley's parents couldn't afford a lawyer, but his mother told him to just tell the truth. So he did. But no
one believed him.
And so the judge gave Stanley the choice of going to jail or going to Camp Green Lake.

Imagine you are Stanley’s, telling the story of the events leading up to his conviction to an impartial
listener. What do we know about Stanley so far?
What are the facts of the story? What assumptions have beenmade?

"Oh," he realized. "I stole a pair of sneakers."

"They belonged to Clyde Livingston."

Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston was a famous baseball player. He'd led the American League in stolen
bases over the last three years. He was also the only player in history to ever hit four triples in one game.

Stanley had a poster of him hanging on the wall of his bedroom. He used to have the
poster anyway. He didn't know where it was now. It had been taken by the police and
was used as evidence of his guilt in the courtroom.
Clyde Livingston also came to court. In spite of everything, when Stanley found out
that Sweet Feet was going to be there, he was actually excited about the prospect of meeting his hero.
Clyde Livingston testified that they were his sneakers and that he had donated them to help raise money
for the homeless shelter. He said he couldn't imagine what kind of horrible person would steal from
homeless children.
That was the worst part for Stanley. His hero thought he was a no-good-dirty-rotten thief.

he had missed his bus and had to walk home.

It was while he was walking home, carrying his wet notebook, with the prospect of having to copy the
ruined pages, that the sneakers fell from the sky.
"I was walking home and the sneakers fell from the sky," he had told the judge.
"One hit me on the head."
It had hurt, too.
They hadn't exactly fallen from the sky. He had just walked out from under a freeway overpass when the
shoe hit him on the head.
Stanley took it as some kind of sign. His father had been trying to figure out a way to recycle old
sneakers, and suddenly a pair of sneakers fell on top of him, seemingly
out of nowhere, like a gift from God.
Naturally, he had no way of knowing they belonged to Clyde Livingston. In fact, the shoes were anything
but sweet. Whoever had worn them had had a bad case of foot odor.
Stanley couldn't help but think that there was something special about the shoes,
that they would somehow provide the key to his father's invention. It was too much of a coincidence to
be a mere accident. Stanley had felt like he was holding destiny's shoes.
He ran. Thinking back now, he wasn't sure why he ran. Maybe he was in a hurry to bring the shoes to his
father, or maybe he was trying to run away from his miserable and humiliating day at school.
A patrol car pulled alongside him. A policeman asked him why he was running.
Then he took the shoes and made a call on his radio. Shortly thereafter, Stanley was arrested.
It turned out the sneakers had been stolen from a display at the homeless shelter.
That evening rich people were going to come to the shelter and pay a hundred dollars to eat the food
that the poor people ate every day for free. Clyde Livingston, who had once
lived at the shelter when he was younger, was going to speak and sign autographs. His shoes would be
auctioned, and it was expected that they would sell for over five thousand dollars. All the money would
go to help the homeless.
Because of the baseball schedule, Stanley's trial was delayed several months. His parents couldn't afford
a lawyer. "You don't need a lawyer," his mother had said. "Just tell the truth."
Stanley told the truth, but perhaps it would have been better if he had lied a little. He could have said he
found the shoes in the street. No one believed they fell from the sky.
It wasn't destiny, he realized. It was his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!
The judge called Stanley's crime despicable. "The shoes were valued at over five thousand dollars. It was
money that would provide food and shelter for the homeless.
And you stole that from them, just so you could have a souvenir."
The judge said that there was an opening at Camp Green Lake, and he suggested that the discipline of
the camp might improve Stanley's character. It was either that or jail. Stanley's parents asked if they
could have some time to find out more about Camp
Green Lake, but the judge advised them to make a quick decision. "Vacancies don't last long at Camp
Green Lake."