1. Good morning, Please have your copy of Holes, your novel study duo-tang, a pencil and an eraser on your desk. You should be reading quietly by 8:06am. At 8:25am, you will receive your test on Section 1 (Chapters 1-6) of Holes. You will have until 9:00am to complete the test. Following the test, we will read through Section 1 together and discuss it this afternoon.

2. SECTION 1: CHAPTERS 1-6

3. On Deck Setting Establishing Threats Mr. Sir & Mr. Pendanski
The Yelnats Family Curse
Jumping Timelines
Nicknames & Perception

4. 1. Setting: Camp Green Lake
“While every other story I’d written had begun with the characters, to me this story has always been about a place – Camp Green Lake. The story began with the place, and the characters and the plot grew out of it.” (Sachar)

5. 1. Setting: Camp Green Lake
There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas. That was over a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland. There used to be a town of Green Lake as well. The town shriveled and dried up along with the lake, and the people who lived there. During the summer the daytime temperature hovers around ninety-five degrees in the shade – if you can find any shade. There’s not much shade in a big dry lake. (Page 3)

6. 1. Setting: Camp Green Lake
His mouth was dry and his throat hurt. He stepped onto the hard, dry dirt. There was a band of sweat around his wrist where the handcuff had been. The land was barren and desolate. He could see a few run-down buildings and some tents. Farther away there was a cabin beneath two tall trees. Those two trees were the only plant life he could see. There weren’t even weeds. (Page 11)
Set the Scene: Complete the worksheet using details from the story and your own senses to describe the setting of the novel

7. 1. Setting: Camp Green Lake
What backdrop does the setting provide us?
menacing, harsh, prison/work camp
How does the setting trigger the plot?
hint at what’s to come
How does the setting affect characters?
something the characters will have to combat against

8. 2. Establishing Threats Nature Humans Conflict: Man vs. Nature
unrelenting sun
dry air
poisonous animals
Humans
Conflict: Man vs. Man
harsh authority figures
control
guns

9. 3. Mr. Sir & Mr. Pendanski
Create a Venn diagram to compare these two authority figures – leave some space since we’ll come back to this!
Mr. Sir
Mr. Pendanski

10. 3. Mr. Sir & Mr. Pendanski Mr. Sir Both Mr. Pendanski
-Menacing, physical presence
-Authority figures
-Mean
-Kind, caring presence
-Seems supportive
-”Mom”
-Hypocrite (treatment of Zero)

11. 4. The Yelnats Family Curse
Curse: any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity (people, a place, an object)
Introduced to the cycle of hope and disappointment that runs through the family
“Wrong place at the wrong time”

12. 4. The Yelnats Family Curse
Storyline
Hope
Disappointment
Stanley’s great grandfather makes a fortune on the stock market
Move from New York to California in hopes of a better life
Is robbed by the outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow
Stanley’s father as inventor
Tries different ideas
Continued failures
Stanley finds Clyde “Sweet Feet” Livingston’s shoes
Stanley takes these as a “sign…gift from God,” that there was something special about them and they would be the key to his father’s invention; thinks he’s holding “destiny’s shoes”
He ends up getting arrested for stealing the shoes and has the choice between prison and Camp Green Lake
Stanley’s lack of self-confidence, friendships
Hopes for friends and fun at Camp Green Lake
????

13. 5. Jumping Timelines
Flashback: a scene or episode which is inserted to show events that happened at an earlier time (providing extra information to the reader)
Jump back and forth through time, tracking 3 different storylines, throughout the book

14. 5. Jumping Timelines
Narrator presents information about different places and times in history
Camp Green Lake
Stanley’s trial
Stanley’s home
Family history
Full information is not available on any of these…yet
We know Stanley was wrongfully convicted, but the crime itself is unknown

15. 5. Jumping Timelines
Pattern of the novel: slowly revealing pieces to create a unified chain of events that can be inferred, but not proven, until the novel’s end
Must take note of details in the story – they will help us predict what comes next
Yellow-spotted lizards
Stanley’s trial
Kissin’ Kate Barlow
Stanley’s ancestry
Events will come to relate to one another despite seeming unimportant in the first few chapters

16. 6. Nicknames & Perception
Stanley is not like the other boys (he is innocent) and the nature of their crimes is unknown
Stanley wants to go to Camp Green Lake because he’s never been able to go to camp before
The sign outside of Mr. Sir’s office suggests the violent second- nature of the boys (even though Stanley disregards the sign entirely)
Nicknames
Cutting themselves off from their lives outside camp?
Don’t want to look back at the past?
Retaining some identity and power at Camp?
People are wrongfully perceived by others throughout the novel

17. 6. Nicknames & Perception
Character
Perception
Truth
Stanley
Accused of a crime
Size makes him impossible to be bullied
Boys don’t believe he’s capable
Bullied at school by the smaller Derrick Dunne
Mr. Pendanski
“Mom” – supportive figure
Dismisses Zero as a boy with no brains at all
Zero
“Zero” – no brains, useless
???

18. Quick Write: Evolution of Stanley
Using evidence from the Section 1 (Chapters 1-6), make a few notes about the type of character Stanley is at the start of the book (save some space!)
START
MIDDLE
END