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Holes
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Stanley was given a choice, unlike most campers, but the choice was jail or Camp Green Lake. Is that a real choice?
The tension The chapter says Stanley was given a choice that most campers were not, while the two things the judge offers are jail and a camp for bad boys where they dig every day in the hot sun.
Notice what the chapter says about choice: most campers have none, Stanley has one, and both roads lead somewhere hard.
The narrator guesses what the reader is asking, then explains that most campers were not given a choice and that some people thought digging would turn a bad boy good. The chapter ends with the judge's offer to Stanley and two facts about him: his family is poor and he has never been to camp.
Start with the short sentence, "That was what some people thought." Ask the student whose idea it was, and whether the narrator seems to share it.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the reader's question, the campers with no choice, the idea about digging, and the judge's offer to Stanley.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes a long sentence stating a hopeful idea, then a short sentence that puts it at a distance.
Debate Take sides on the big question: is the judge's offer a real choice? Each side must use one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why a book about a camp might start by telling us most campers had no choice.
Easier Read the chapter aloud together and talk through discussion questions 2 and 4 only.
On level Talk through all four discussion questions, then have the student write one critical-thinking answer with two pieces of evidence from the chapter.
Harder Ask the student to explain what the chapter leaves out about Stanley and the camp, and to add one sentence about it to a critical-thinking answer.
1. The narrator opens by guessing what the reader is asking: why would anyone go to Camp Green Lake? Why might the author begin this way?Author's choice
What it asks It asks why the author speaks straight to the reader with a question, and what that does before the answer comes.
It makes the reader curious, because the question suggests the place is not somewhere people would choose.
The reader is probably asking: Why would anyone go to Camp Green Lake?
It makes the narrator sound friendly and in charge, someone who knows what we are thinking and will explain.
The reader is probably asking: Why would anyone go to Camp Green Lake?
Most campers weren’t given a choice.
A strong answer The narrator asks the reader's question before the reader can, which draws the reader in and makes the narrator sound like a guide. The question also hints that Camp Green Lake is not a place anyone would pick, and the very next line says most campers were not given a choice. A good answer says what the opening does and ties it to the question's words.
2. Some people thought that digging a hole every day in the hot sun would turn a bad boy into a good one. What do you think?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks whether hard, forced work can change a person for the better, and what the student's own reason is.
Hard daily work could change a boy, because doing something difficult day after day builds him up.
If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.
Work done as a punishment may not change what he is like inside; the narrator does not seem to be sure it does.
That was what some people thought.
Camp Green Lake is a camp for bad boys.
A strong answer A strong answer weighs the idea instead of just agreeing. Daily hard work in the heat could teach a boy something, and some people believed it would. But the idea treats hard work and punishment as the same thing, and the narrator calls it only what some people thought. The student can pick either side if the reason is given.
3. The chapter tells us Stanley was from a poor family and had never been to camp before. What do those two facts suggest about him?Inference
What it asks It asks what the student can work out about Stanley from two plain facts, and how much the chapter leaves unsaid.
He is unprepared and likely to find the camp new and hard, with no experience and little money to fall back on.
Stanley was from a poor family.
He had never been to camp before.
He is not like the other campers, since the chapter marks him out as the one who was given a choice.
Stanley Yelnats was given a choice.
Most campers weren’t given a choice.
A strong answer The chapter gives only two facts: Stanley's family is poor and he has never been to camp. A reasonable guess is that the place will be new to him and he has little to help him. The chapter also sets him apart from most campers by giving him a choice. A strong answer builds a careful guess and admits how little the chapter has told us so far.
4. Most campers weren’t given a choice, but Stanley was. Who has it harder, the campers with no choice or the one who had to choose?Character
What it asks It asks the student to compare having no say with having a say between two hard options, and to judge which weighs more.
The campers with no choice have it harder, since nothing about their lives is up to them.
Most campers weren’t given a choice.
Stanley may have it harder, since he must choose between two bad things and live with what he picks.
You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake.
A strong answer A good answer compares what each side has. The campers with no choice have no say at all. Stanley gets a say, but only between jail and Camp Green Lake, and he has to live with what he picks. The student may choose either side, so long as the reason holds. The chapter does not say what Stanley chose.
1. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how the narrator seems to feel about the idea that digging holes turns a bad boy into a good one.
What it asks It asks the student to read the narrator's tone from a few small word choices and to back a reading with two pieces of evidence.
The narrator doubts the idea and keeps it at arm's length.
That was what some people thought.
The reader is probably asking: Why would anyone go to Camp Green Lake?
The narrator simply reports the idea without saying whether it is right or wrong.
If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.
A strong answer The narrator gives the idea in full and then adds, “That was what some people thought,” so it belongs to other people and is told in the past tense. That can be read as doubt, or as a plain report. The narrator also never says the digging works. A strong answer picks a reading, uses two pieces of evidence, and notices that the narrator leaves room for another.
2. The judge says, “You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake.” Using two pieces of evidence, explain what the judge's words show about the two places.
What it asks It asks what the judge's offer tells us about jail and Camp Green Lake, using what the chapter says about the camp.
The judge treats the camp as the gentler offer, a way to stay out of jail.
Stanley Yelnats was given a choice.
You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake.
The camp is no light offer: it is a hard place with daily work.
Camp Green Lake is a camp for bad boys.
make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun
A strong answer The judge puts the two places side by side, which suggests the camp may be the easier of the two, since Stanley is asked to choose it over jail. But the chapter describes a camp for bad boys where a boy digs a hole every day in the hot sun, so it is hard in its own way. The chapter says nothing about what jail is like, so a strong answer weighs only what the chapter gives.
3. Camp Green Lake is a camp for bad boys. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what “bad boy” seems to mean in this chapter.
What it asks It asks the student to find what the chapter means by bad boy, and to notice what it leaves unsaid.
A bad boy is someone who has done wrong and needs to be corrected.
If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.
A bad boy is a label for a boy who has been sent away and given no say about it.
Camp Green Lake is a camp for bad boys.
Most campers weren’t given a choice.
A strong answer The chapter uses bad boy two ways. The camp's idea treats a bad boy as someone who can be turned into a good one by work, so the word means a boy who needs correcting. But the chapter also calls the camp a camp for bad boys while saying most campers had no choice, so the word is also a label put on boys by others. The chapter never says what any boy did, and a strong answer does not guess.