Print at 100% scale on letter paper, with no added margins.
Holes
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
The Warden says she does not care what happens so long as she has the suitcase, then recalls digging on Christmas as a girl. Does knowing her past help us understand her, excuse her, or neither?
The tension The Warden stands with a flashlight and guns while lizards crawl over two boys and calls it waiting, and in the same breath her voice trails off and she speaks of being made to dig when she was little.
Notice what the Warden says and does while the lizards crawl on the boys, and what she tells about herself.
A flashlight lights Zero, who sits with the suitcase in his lap. The Warden and counselors stand over the holes, some in nightclothes, until she sees a lizard on the suitcase and backs away. More lizards appear, and Stanley finds he is standing in a lizard nest. The adults decide to wait. The Warden speaks of digging holes as a girl, and the chapter ends on Stanley's heartbeat.
Start with the Warden's words, "Just so long as I have the suitcase, I don’t care what happens." Ask what a person who says that cares about.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the flashlight, the suitcase, the first lizard, the nest, the adults' words, the Warden's memory and the heartbeat.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes two sentences in the same pattern: one saying what a light showed, and one saying what the person had to do to stay quiet.
Debate Take sides: does the Warden's past help us understand her, excuse her, or neither? Each side uses at least one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why the author lets the Warden tell a memory while the lizards crawl.
Easier Read the Warden's lines aloud together and talk through discussion questions 2 and 3 only.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions, then have the student write one critical-thinking answer with two pieces of evidence from the chapter.
Harder Ask the student to find one more place where the Warden or another adult says what matters most to them, and to add it to a critical-thinking answer.
1. Mr. Pendanski says, “At least we’ll have a body to give that woman.” What does that line tell us about how the adults see the boys?Inference
What it asks It asks what the adults' words show about how they weigh the boys, and whether the line comes from coldness or from fear.
They see the boys as a problem to be settled, so a body would at least give them something to show.
“At least we’ll have a body to give that woman,” said Mr. Pendanski.
“She’s going to ask a lot of questions,” said Mr. Sir.
They are frightened and see nothing they can do, so the line is made from helplessness more than coldness.
“What do we do?” asked Mr. Pendanski.
Stanley heard one say, “What’s going—” and then whisper, “Oh my God.”
A strong answer Mr. Pendanski says they will at least have a body to give, and Mr. Sir worries about the questions to come, so the boys sound like a problem to be settled. But Mr. Pendanski has just asked what they should do, and another counselor whispers Oh my God. A strong answer says which feeling leads, coldness or fear, and uses one line from each side.
2. The Warden begins to thank the boys, then stops and slowly backs away. What does that moment show about her?Character
What it asks It asks what the sudden stop shows about the Warden: a real fear, or a quick mind that changes plans at once.
It shows real fear: she stops mid-sentence, just as anyone would, when the lizards appear.
“You boys arrived just in the nick—” the Warden started to say.
She stopped talking and she stopped walking. Then she slowly backed away.
It shows how fast she recovers: she backs off and then simply decides to wait.
“We wait,” said the Warden. “It won’t be very long.”
“Let her ask her questions,” said the Warden.
A strong answer The Warden stops her own sentence, stops walking and backs away, so for a moment she is as afraid as anyone. Then she tells the others to wait, and her voice is calm. A strong answer says whether the stop shows fear or quickness, and notices that she backs away from the lizards but not from the plan.
3. The Warden says, “We wait.” Is she choosing not to help, or is waiting all anyone can do?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to weigh a choice against a limit: what the Warden could do, and what the lizards make unsafe.
She is choosing: her words show she cares more about the suitcase than about what happens to the boys.
“Just so long as I have the suitcase, I don’t care what happens.”
“It won’t be long now,” the Warden said.
Waiting is all anyone can do: any sudden move could set the lizards on a boy.
he didn’t want to cause any commotion
He tried to remain very still.
A strong answer The Warden says she does not care what happens so long as she has the suitcase, and she says it will not be long now, so waiting looks like her choice. But Stanley himself stays still so as not to cause a commotion, so any sudden move may be dangerous. A strong answer takes a side and says what the other side gets right.
4. The Warden says she had to dig holes as a girl, even on Christmas. Why might the author give her that memory now?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what the memory does at this moment in the scene, and how it changes the way we hear her earlier words.
It makes her more human: her voice trails off and she tells of being made to dig as a girl.
Her voice trailed off, then started up again.
When I got bigger, I had to dig, too. Even on Christmas.
It makes the scene colder, since she tells it while a lizard crawls over Stanley's face.
Stanley felt tiny claws dig into the side of his face as the lizard pulled itself off his neck and up past his chin.
“Just so long as I have the suitcase, I don’t care what happens.”
A strong answer The Warden's voice trails off and then starts up again, and she says she had to dig even on Christmas, so for a moment she sounds like someone remembering. The next line puts tiny claws on Stanley's face, which keeps the reader from settling into sympathy. A strong answer says what the memory does to the scene, and does not claim to know more of her past than she says.
5. The chapter ends as Stanley hears his heart beat. How does the author make the waiting feel so long?Tone
What it asks It asks the student to notice the small techniques that stretch a few seconds across a page.
The author slows everything down to tiny details of the lizards and what they do.
Something was crawling up the back of his neck.
Stanley felt tiny claws dig into the side of his face
The author shrinks time to a single heartbeat, so each second is one that might be the last.
Stanley could hear his heart beat.
Each beat told him he was still alive, at least for one more second.
A strong answer The author keeps the reader on tiny things, a lizard on the neck, then claws on the face, so the scene moves by inches. The ending counts time in heartbeats, and the words at least for one more second make each beat feel borrowed. A strong answer names one or both of these and says what the reader feels.
1. Stanley wonders whether to scramble out of the hole, then stays. Using two pieces of evidence, explain why he stays still.
What it asks It asks the student to name what keeps Stanley still: what he fears the lizards will do, or how many of them are already on him.
He fears that moving will make the lizards turn on him.
He wondered if he should try to scramble out of the hole before the lizards turned on him, but he didn’t want to cause any commotion.
He tried to remain very still.
He has nowhere safe to go: the lizards are on him and around him already.
He could see six lizards. There were three on the ground, two on his left leg, and one on his right sneaker.
He was standing in a lizard nest.
A strong answer Stanley thinks of scrambling out but does not want to cause any commotion, and he tries to remain very still. He also sees six lizards, two on his left leg and one on his sneaker, in what he calls a lizard nest, so there is no clean way out. A strong answer says which reason is stronger and uses two pieces of evidence.
2. Stanley works out where the lizards came from. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what he figures out and what he cannot be sure of.
What it asks It asks the student to sort what Stanley sees from what he guesses.
He figures the suitcase carried them: lizards are on it, and he handed it to Zero.
A lizard had crawled up on top of the suitcase.
It occurred to Stanley that the lizards were probably on the suitcase when he handed it to Zero.
He learns the hole itself is a nest, which he did not know when he dug.
He was standing in a lizard nest.
A lizard was crawling out of it.
A strong answer Stanley sees a lizard on the suitcase and guesses it was probably there when he handed it to Zero. He also sees that the hole itself is a lizard nest, and another lizard crawling out of the cereal box. A strong answer says what he sees and what he only guesses, and notices the word probably.
3. Stanley notices how each adult is dressed. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what he can and cannot tell from it.
What it asks It asks the student to see what the clothes suggest about how ready each adult was, and where Stanley's own guess begins.
Some of them came in a rush: Mr. Sir and the Warden are in their sleeping clothes.
Mr. Sir was barefoot and bare-chested, wearing only his pajama bottoms.
The Warden moved toward Zero. She was also in her bed clothes, wearing an extra-long T-shirt.
Mr. Pendanski may have been waiting, and the Warden may have been ready for walking.
Mr. Pendanski was the only one fully dressed. Perhaps he had been on guard duty.
Unlike Mr. Sir, however, she had on her boots.
A strong answer Mr. Sir is barefoot and bare-chested in his pajama bottoms, and the Warden is in a T-shirt, so they seem to have come quickly. Mr. Pendanski is fully dressed, and Stanley only guesses that perhaps he was on guard duty. A strong answer uses one piece of evidence for what Stanley sees and one for what he guesses.