Read this excerpt from Holes. The judge called Stanley's crime despicable. "The

shoes were valued at over five thousand dollars. It was

money that would provide food and shelter for the

homeless. And you stole that from them, just so you

could have a souvenir."

The judge said that there was an opening at Camp

Green Lake, and he suggested that the discipline of the

camp might improve Stanley's character. It was either

that or jail. Stanley's parents asked if they could have

some time to find out more about Camp Green Lake,

but the judge advised them to make a quick decision.

"Vacancies don't last long at Camp Green Lake.

He leaned his head against the wall; his eyes were shut, his hands clasped in each other, and his body seemed to be sustained in an upright position merely by the cellar-door against which he rested his left shoulder. the lethargy into which he was sunk seemed scarcely interrupted by my feeling his hand and his forehead. his throbbing temples and burning skin indicated a fever . . there was only one circumstance that hindered me from forming an immediate determination in what manner this person should be treated. my family consisted of my wife and a young child. our servant-maid had been seized, three days before, by the reigning malady, and, at her own request, had been conveyed to the hospital. we ourselves enjoyed good health, and were hopeful of escaping with our lives. our measures for this end had been cautiously taken and carefully adhered to. they did not consist in avoiding the receptacles of infection, for my office required me to go daily into the midst of them; nor in filling the house with the exhalations of gunpowder, vinegar, or tar. they consisted in cleanliness, reasonable exercise, and wholesome diet. who is the story’s first-person narrator