Holes

142 Pages·1998·0.66 MB·English

by  Louis Sachar

For more than forty years,
Yearling has been the leading name
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HOLES

Winner of the Newbery Medal
Winner of the National Book Award
Winner of the Boston Globe—Horn Book Award
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An ALA Notable Book
An ALA Quick Pick
Winner of the Christopher Award for Juvenile Fiction
A New York Times Book Review
Notable Children’s Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
LOUIS SACHAR is the popular author of Small Steps, Stanley Yelnats’ Survival Guide to Camp
Green Lake, There’s a Boy in the Girls Bathroom, Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes, and the Marvin
Redpost series, among many others. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books a division of Random
House, Inc., New York
Text copyright © 1998 by Louis Sachar
Stepback illustration copyright © 2000 by Bagram Ibatoulline
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For
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registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
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eISBN: 978-0-307-79836-7
Published in association with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC
v3.1
TO SHERRE, JESSICA, LORI, KATHLEEN. AMD EMILY
AMD TO JUDY ALLEN,
A FIFTH-GRADE TEACHER FROM WHOM WE ALL CAM LEARN
Contents

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Part One: You are Entering Camp Green Lake
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Part Two: The Last Hole
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Part Three: Filling in the Holes
Chapter 50
Preview of Small Steps
PART ONE
YOU ARE ENTERING CAMP GREEN LAKE
1

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.
The only trees are two old oaks on the eastern edge of the “lake.” A hammock is stretched
between the two trees, and a log cabin stands behind that.
The campers are forbidden to lie in the hammock. It belongs to the Warden. The Warden owns
the shade.
Out on the lake, rattlesnakes and scorpions find shade under rocks and in the holes dug by
the campers.
Here’s a good rule to remember about rattlesnakes and scorpions: If you don’t bother them,
they won’t bother you.
Usually.
Being bitten by a scorpion or even a rattlesnake is not the worst thing that can happen to you.
You won’t die.
Usually.
Sometimes a camper will try to be bitten by a scorpion, or even a small rattlesnake. Then he
will get to spend a day or two recovering in his tent, instead of having to dig a hole out on the
lake.
But you don’t want to be bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard. That’s the worst thing that can
happen to you. You will die a slow and painful death.
Always.
If you get bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard, you might as well go into the shade of the oak
trees and lie in the hammock.
There is nothing anyone can do to you anymore.