Reading Along with Caleb and Maggie. Caleb's Book is Holes by Louis Sachar Chapter 1-3

During this time of isolation, due to Covid 19, I have decided it would be fun to buddy read a book with Caleb and Maggie.  For Easter, I gave them each a book and I bought the books for myself as well so we can share them over facetime.
I remember reading Holes by Louis Sachar many years ago when my kids were in school and I really liked it.  I think Caleb is old enough now to enjoy reading this book so that is the one I selected for him.

Holes

Chapt 1

The first chapter is an overview of Camp Green Lake in Texas.  It used to be a large beautiful lake but now it is a dried-up wasteland.

There are only two trees on this property and a hammock is tied between them.  The only person allowed to recline in the hammock is the warden, no one else. 

There is only mention of three animals on this property.  The scorpion, the rattlesnake and the most dreaded of all creatures, the Yellow Spotted Lizard.

Chapt 2

Why would anyone go to Camp Green Lake you ask?  The people that went to this camp had no choice.  Camp Green Lake was a camp for "bad boys".  The "bad boys" would have do dig a hole every day in the hot sun, the thinking was that in doing this they would become "good boys".

Our protagonist, Stanley Yelnats was given a choice by the judge to go to jail or to go to camp.  Stanley chooses Camp because "he was from a poor family and he had never been to camp".

Chapt 3

Stanley traveled to camp on a bus, handcuffed to the armrest of his seat.  There was an armed guard assigned to make sure Stanley made it to camp without incident. Stanley tried to imagine he was going to a real camp.  Stanley was innocent, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. When Stanley arrived at Camp Green Lake he noticed that there was no lake and nothing was green.

Stanley's family had a running joke.  If anything at all went wrong they blamed it on Stanley's 

"No-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather".

Stanley's father was an inventor.  He was a very determined man and when he started projects he would work on it for years if need be.  He said you need three things to be an inventor, intelligence, perseverance, and luck.  He had the first two characteristics but many times was lacking in luck.

"I learn from failure"

page 9

The very first Stanley Yelnats was lucky, well, briefly.  He had made a fortune on the stock market.

He was traveling cross country by stagecoach with his money and he was robbed by Kissin Kate Barlow.  He was unlucky in the fact that his money was stolen but he was lucky he was not kissed by Kate.  Kate had a reputation that if she kissed you she would kill you, so at least he survived. 

Our current Stanley lives in a cramped apartment with his family.  The apartment smells like burning rubber and foot order because his father, the inventor, is attempting to find a way to recycle old sneakers. 

FYI: Stanley Yelnats is spelled the same way both forward and backward.

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Questions

1-What was the name of the camp that Stanley was sent to?

2-What two animals could you find under a rock?

3-What can kill you at this camp?

4-What do the boys have to do every day?

5-What did Stanley's father do for a living?

6-Who robbed Stanley's great grandfather and what would happen if this thief kissed you?

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Projects

*Write down the name of a camp you have been to. What was the name of your camp and does the name describe the camp?  If you could re-name your camp what would it be?

*Take your camera and go out in your back yard and look under rocks.  Take photos of what you find.  Hopefully, there will be no snakes, scorpions or unfriendly lizards.

*Stanleys full name is written the same way both forward and backward.  Write your full name and then write it backward and then try to pronounce it.

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Nana's answers

*A camp I went to was Lily Lake camp.  I think it was in NY.  There were no Lillies and there was no lake.  It was a very strict Christain Camp.  The girls had to wear dresses or skirts.  I did not like wearing dresses to play baseball and I fell once running the bases because I was wearing my mom's pencil skirt.  There was a pastor that had the mantra, "if in doubt rule it out". That is all I remember about the camp.  So what would I name it?  If in Doubt Rule it Out and Girls Never Wear Pants Camp.

*There are not many rocks near the townhome where I live.  I did find one and all I found were roots.  I guess I should be thankful there were no snakes or scorpions:-)

*Kathy Voshell=Llehsov Yhtak.  That is a tough one to pronounce:-)

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Answers to the Questions

1-Camp Green Lake

2-Snakes and scorpions

3-The Yellow Spotted Lizard

4-Dig very large holes in the heat

5-Recycled old sneakers

6-Kissin Kate Barlow.  If she kissed you she would kill you.

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Gifts to go along with the book
(I am an Amazon Affiliate.  If you buy anything by linking to the photos below I receive a small % of your purchase price at no extra cost to you.)

                                                               

                                                             

Happy Reading Everyone!

KathieyV (Nana:-)