Now with this post, be sure to take notes as there is a lot of backstory.
Here are the 2 main people this book is about; Stanley Yelnats and Hector Zeroni.
Stanley Yelnats (yes, his first name is his last name backwards) was falsely accused of stealing Clyde Livingston’s shoes from the homeless center. He was arrested and sentenced for 18 months at Camp Green Lake. There he must dig a 5 foot by 5 foot hole every day.
Hector (or Zero) Zeroni was a orphan living on the streets until he was caught stealing a pair of shoes. He came to camp a month before Stanley and apparently loves digging holes.
Keep track of what happens as I go through what happened in this novel; take notes if you have to.
On the bus to Camp Green Lake, Stanley first sees the dry wasteland, originally a beautiful lake, but was cursed to never rain. Now, a long time ago, a woman named Miss Katherine worked as a teacher in Green Lake. One day Katherine asked a African American, Sam the onion man, to fix the school. She kept asking him and eventually they fell in love. But at the time that was illegal, and the people killed Sam and Katherine turned to crime; and ever since then Green Lake never rained again and was infested by the highly deadly, Yellow Spotted Lizard.
From then on she only used the name Kate Barlow and hid all of her treasure buried somewhere in the dry wasteland. So Stanley had to dig a hole every day because the Warden, the head of the camp, wanted to find the treasure. After a couple of days Stanley finds a lipstick tube with initials K. B on it, and instead of giving it to the Warden, he gives it to a friend, who says he found it in his hole, misleading the Warden.
The next day while writing a letter to his mum, makes a deal with Zero; he will teach Zero how to read and write in exchange for Zero to dig some of his hole. The boys seeing this, get very jealous and attacked Stanley until Zero nearly kills a boy by choking him. Zero then storms out and Stanley follows him. Stanley then finds him under a boat drinking what he calls “sploosh” from some jars he also found. He and Stanley then decide to climb up the nearest mountain in hopes of water.
A long time ago, Stanley’s great great grandfather was named Elya. He fell in love with a girl naked Myra, but she was very empty headed and when Elya asked a friend named Madame Zeroni for help , who reluctantly said yes. She told him to carry a pig up a mountain every day and give it the water at the top. She also said that if he didn’t carry her up the mountain he and his descendants would be cursed. He did so, but forgot to carry up Madame Zeroni up the mountain and he was cursed.
Zero fell sick on the sploosh as it was extremely old and Stanley had to carry Zero up the mountain. The great great grandson of Elya carried the great great great grandson of Madame Zeroni up the mountain and lifted the curse on the Yelnats.
Stanley found some onions and some water and the pair rejuvenated themselves and went back to camp to find the treasure and life a fugitive life together. They did end up finding it, but, 9 Yellow Spotted Lizards jumped on the boys; but for some reason didn’t bite them. However, the Warden came and waited until the boys would die to collect the briefcase. After a day, Stanley’s attorney comes and says Stanley and Zero are innocent and they shut down Camp Green Lake, and in the briefcase, both Stanley and Zero get half a million dollars in papers.
Always stand for good as good always wins such as the Warden losing the camp and Stanley and Zero getting the benefit of the toil for good.
Stay reading!
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