Have you ever had to spend long hours in the hot sun? Have you ever had to dig a hole? Imagine having to do this every day. This is the conflict that Stanley Yelnats is faced with in the book "Holes", by Louis Sachar.
Stanley is just a normal boy, but one day he gets caught with some shoes belonging to a famous baseball player. He's sent to Camp Green Lake, a camp to build character for delinquent boys. He doesn't quite fit in with the other boys, and he meets a kid named Zero, who is also an outcast. They form a strong friendship, and Stanley even agrees to teach Zero how to read if he will dig part of Stanley's hole each day. This leads to a conflict with the warden, but that's only the beginning of their problems.
Zero refuses to dig holes, and decides to leave camp, walking into the hot desert. Stanley finds him under a boat in the vast, dried-up lake. Now the friends are together, but they have no food or water, and they're miles from civilization. The only tools they have are a shovel and some glass bottles from the "sploosh" that Zero finds in the boat. Their only hope is to follow in the footsteps of the first Stanley Yelnats, and find refuge on God's Thumb.
All this trouble, just from a silly mistake and a worthless pair of shoes. Because of it, Stanley and Zero have to fight to survive. Their survival is in the hands of an ironic miracle from the distant past of Camp Green Lake.
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