Holes by Louis Sachar

Holes by Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats is an kid with bad luck coming from an ancient family curse. He is overweight, and unlikely to stick up for himself when challenged by the class bully. Even though he is a really big kid for his age. He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time when a stolen pair of shoes lands on him after being thrown over an over pass. Stanley later realizes they are Clyde Livingston shoes, the famous baseball player. Stanley is unfairly sentenced to months of detention at Camp Green Lake in Texas, where he's forced to dig one hole in the hard desert soil every day. The hole must be exactly five feet in diameter, the distance from the tip of his shovel to the top of the wooden handle. Each boy is forced to dig until his hole is completed, no matter how long it takes. Stanley soon begins to question why the warden is so interested in anything "special" the boys find. According to the warden the digging builds character but she has something else in mind. At the camp, Stanley meets Zero, the boy that committed the crime that Stanley was blamed for, for this was a fortunate event for Stanley because

it allowed him to break the ancient curse