{"product_id":"holes-isbn-9780440228592","title":"Holes","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis groundbreaking classic is now available in a special anniversary edition with bonus content. Winner of the Newbery Medal as well as the National Book Award, HOLES is a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestseller and one of the strongest-selling middle-grade books to ever hit shelves!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment\u003cbr\u003e—and redemption.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpecial anniversary edition bonus content includes: A New Note From the Author!; \"Ten Things You May Not Know About\u003ci\u003e HOLES\" \u003c\/i\u003eby Louis Sachar; and more!A New York Public Library's 100 Great Children's Books 100 Years selection\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A dazzling blend of social commentary, tall tale and magic realism.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There is no question, kids will love Holes.\"--\u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred\u003cp\u003eLouis Sachar is the author of the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eHoles\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Christopher Award, as well as \u003ci\u003eStanley Yelnats' Survival to Camp Green Lake\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eSmall Steps\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award; and \u003ci\u003eThe Cardturner\u003c\/i\u003e, a \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book, a Parents' Choice Gold Award recipient, and an ALA-YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Book. His books for younger readers include \u003ci\u003eThere's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, The Boy Who Lost His Face, Dogs Don't Tell Jokes,\u003c\/i\u003e and the Marvin Redpost series, among many others.\u003c\/p\u003eStanley Yelnats was the only passenger on the bus, not counting the driver or the guard. The guard sat next to the driver with his seat turned around facing Stanley. A rifle lay across his lap.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStanley was sitting about ten rows back, handcuffed to his armrest. His backpack lay on the seat next to him. It contained his toothbrush, toothpaste, and a box of stationary his mother had given him. He’d promised to write to her at least once a week.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe looked out the window, although there wasn’t much to see—mostly fields of hay and cotton. He was on a long bus ride to nowhere. The bus wasn’t air-conditioned, and the hot heavy air was almost as stifling as the handcuffs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStanley and his parents had tried to pretend that he was just going away to camp for a while, just like rich kids do. When Stanley was younger he used to play with stuffed animals, and pretend the animals were at camp. Camp Fun and Games he called it. Sometimes he’d have them play soccer with a marble. Other times they’d run an obstacle course, or go bungee jumping off a table, tied to broken rubber bands. Now Stanley tried to pretend he was going to Camp Fun and Games. Maybe he’ d make some friends, he thought. At least he’d get to swim in the lake.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe didn’ t have any friends at home. He was overweight and the kids at his middle school often teased him about his size. Even his teachers sometimes made cruel comments without realizing it. On his last day of school, his math teacher, Mrs. Bell, taught ratios. As an example, she chose the heaviest kid in the class and the lightest kid in the class, and had them weigh themselves. Stanley weighed three times as much as the other boy. Mrs. Bell wrote the ratio on the board, 3:1, unaware of how much embarrassment she had caused both of them.\u003cbr\u003eStanley was arrested later that day.\u003cbr\u003eHe looked at the guard who sat slumped in his seat and wondered of he had fallen asleep. The guard was wearing sunglasses, so Stanley couldn’t see his eyes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!  \u003cbr\u003eHe smiled. It was a family joke. Whenever anything went wrong, they always blamed Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSupposedly, he had a great-great-grandfather who had stolen a pig from one-legged Gypsy, and she put a curse on him and all his descendants. Stanley and his parents didn’t believe in curses, of course, but whenever anything went wrong, it felt good to be able to blame someone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThings went wrong a lot. They always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. \u003cbr\u003eHe looked out the window at the vast emptiness. He watched the rise and fall of a telephone wire. In his mind he could hear his father’s gruff voice softly singing to him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“If only, if only,” the woodpecker sighs, \u003cbr\u003e“The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer.”\u003cbr\u003e“While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,\u003cbr\u003eHe cries to the moo–oo–oon,\u003cbr\u003e“If only, if only.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a song his father used to sing to him. The melody was sweet and sad, but Stanley’s favorite part was when his father would howl the word “moon”.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe bus hit a small bump and the guard sat up, instantly alert.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStanley’s father was an inventor. To be a successful inventor you need three things: intelligence, perseverance, and just a little bit of luck. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStanley’s father was smart and had a lot of perseverance. Once he started a project he would work on it for years, often going days without sleep. He just never had any luck. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery time an experiment failed, Stanley could hear him cursing his dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStanley’s father was also named Stanley Yelnats. Stanley’s father’s full name was Stanley Yelnats III. Our Stanley is Stanley Yelnats IV.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEveryone in his family had always liked the fact that “Stanley Yelnats” was spelled the same frontward and backward. So they kept naming their sons Stanley. Stanley was an only child, as was every other Stanley Yelnats before him. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll of them had something else in common. Despite their awful luck, they always remained hopeful. As Stanley’s father liked to say, “ I learned from failure.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut perhaps that was part of the curse as well. If Stanley and his father weren’t always hopeful, then it wouldn’t hurt so much every time their hopes were crushed. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Not every Stanley Yelnats has been a failure,” Stanley’s mother often pointed out, whenever Stanley or his father became so discouraged that they actually started to believe in the curse. The first Stanley Yelnats, Stanley’ s great-grandfather, had made a fortune in the stock market. “He couldn’t have been too unlucky.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt such times she neglected to mention the bad luck that befell the first Stanley Yelnats. He lost his entire fortune when he was moving from New York to California. His stagecoach was robbed by the outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf it weren’t for that, Stanley’s family would now be living in a mansion on a beach in California. Instead, they were crammed in a tiny apartment that smelled of burning rubber and foot odor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“If only, if only….\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe apartment smelled the way it did because Stanley’s father was trying to invent a way to recycle old sneakers. “The first person who finds a use for old sneakers, “ he said, “will be a very rich man.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was this lastest project that led to Stanley’s arrest. \u003cbr\u003eThe bus ride became increasingly bumpy because the road was no longer paved. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eActually, Stanley had been impressed when he first found out that is great-grandfather was robbed by Kissin’ Kate Barlow. True, he would have preferred living on the beach in California, but it was still kind of cool to have someone in your family robbed by a famous outlaw.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKate Barlow didn’t actually kiss Stanley’s great-grandfather. That would have been really cool, but she only kissed the men she killed. Instead, she robbed him and left him stranded in the middle of the desert.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“He was \u003ci\u003elucky\u003c\/i\u003e to have survived,” Stanley’s mother was quick to point out. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe bus was slowing down. The guard grunted as he stretched out his arms. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Welcome Camp Green Lake,” said the driver. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStanley looked out the dirty window. He couldn’t see a lake.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd hardly anything was green.","brand":"Laurel Leaf","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303802261733,"sku":"NP9780440228592","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780440228592.jpg?v=1767729131","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/holes-isbn-9780440228592","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}