Vocabulary from Louis Sachar's "Holes"

Stanley watched the water splatter on the dirt, where it was quickly absorbed by the thirsty ground.

His voice was weak and raspy.

His mouth was as dry and as parched as the lake.

The landlord is threatening to evict us because of the odor.

Several people snickered.

It expanded when it was excavated.

He couldn't afford to dawdle.

His knees crumpled beneath him.

It was layered and streaked with different shades of red, burnt orange, brown, and tan.

They didn't dip their socks into the hole, afraid to contaminate the water.

He was able to lift Zero high enough for him to grab the protruding slab of rock.

He saw a large indentation in the weeds a little farther down the mountain.

I just don't have it memorized exactly."

He unearthed several shovelfuls of dirt in this manner, before it occurred to him that he was dumping his dirt within the perimeter of his hole.

Instead they zigzagged back and forth, increasing their altitude by small increments every time they changed directions.

Kate could see her rummaging through the cabin, dumping drawers and knocking things from the shelves of cabinets.

He had a tattoo of a rattlesnake on his arm, and as he signed his name, the snake's rattle seemed to wiggle "I used to smoke a pack a day.

Mr. Sir opened the nozzle, and the water flowed out of the tank, but it did not go into Stanley's canteen.

Zero's legs dangled in front of him.

Miss Katherine usually stayed in the schoolhouse, grading papers and such, while Sam worked on the roof.

The air was thick with heat, dust, and exhaust fumes.

He rotated it and only had to chip off a few chunks of dirt, here and there, before it could lie flat across his hole in every direction.

As he dumped it out, he thought he saw something glisten as it fell onto the dirt pile.

He unearthed several shovelfuls of dirt in this manner, before it occurred to him that he was dumping his dirt within the perimeter of his hole.

It was a mirage caused by the shimmering waves of heat rising off the dry ground.

Maybe he was in a hurry to bring the shoes to his father, or maybe he was trying to run away from his miserable and humiliating day at school.

His body writhed in agony.

The water ran out under the walls and evaporated quickly in the sun.

Mr. Sir made a bandage out of a piece of his sack of sunflower seeds and taped it over Stanley's wound.

He tapped his holster.

He felt his wet blood and a pretty big gash just below his ear.

Clyde Livingston testified that they were his sneakers and that he had donated them to help raise money for the homeless shelter.

Myra's father got down on his hands and knees and closely examined each pig, tail to snout.

The door hung crooked on its bent hinges.

"No."
Stanley was amazed.

In fact, it was the same foot fungus that a hundred and ten years later would afflict the famous ballplayer Clyde Livingston.

For a second, Mr. Sir's pain seemed to recede.

Stanley jerked back against the seat and tightly gripped the wheel as the truck accelerated.

The yellow-spotted lizards like to live in holes, which offer shade from the sun and protection from predatory birds.

It was a mirage caused by the shimmering waves of heat rising off the dry ground.

They called themselves Magnet, Armpit, and Zigzag.

Instead, she robbed him and left him stranded in the middle of the desert.

It was a warm, bubbly, mushy nectar, sweet and tangy.

By the time Stanley retrieved it, he had missed his bus and had to walk home.

He leaned on the shaft and pried up his first shovelful of dirt, then dumped it off to the side.

The truck lurched forward.

That quack wanted to put leeches on her stomach!

He glanced at Zero, about fifteen feet away, who scooped out a shovelful of dirt and dumped it on a pile that was already almost a foot tall.

Next to it was another sign which declared that it was a violation of the Texas Penal Code to bring guns, explosives, weapons, drugs, or alcohol onto the premises.

He sniffed and caught his breath.

He grimaced as he sliced off a chunk of dirt, then raised it up and flung it onto a pile.

The air became unbearably humid.

Myra looked confused.

"Do you want to know my secret ingredient?"

During the summer the daytime temperature hovers around ninety-five degrees in the shade—if you can find any shade.

"Rattlesnake venom."

The judge called Stanley's crime despicable.

It contained almost two feet of murky water.

In his mind he could hear his father's gruff voice softly singing to him

"If only, if only," the woodpecker sighs,
"The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer."

"You seem distracted."

He tried to jam it into the earth, but the blade banged against the ground and bounced off without making a dent.

"Luh— Luh-un—" Suddenly, Zero made a horrible, wrenching noise as he doubled over and grabbed his stomach.

"It's only toxic while it's wet."

After focusing on Big Thumb for so long, it was as if the rock had absorbed his energy and now acted like a kind of giant magnet pulling him toward it.

He poked his fat finger in Stanley's neck.

Then he will get to spend a day or two recovering in his tent, instead of having to dig a hole out on the lake
But you don't want to be bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard.

"Thanks," he said as Zero entered through the tent flap.

He would have felt pretty silly reciting nursery rhymes at Camp Green Lake.

The only time they were visible was just at sunup, before the air became hazy.

There were three dark-purple jagged lines running down his cheek where the Warden had scratched him.

Madame Zeroni spat on the dirt.

"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 air was thick with heat, dust, and exhaust fumes.

The next morning, out on the lake, Stanley listened as Mr. Sir told Twitch the requirements for his hole: ". . . as wide and as deep as your shovel."

The counselors slept in F.
Stanley was assigned to D tent.

Her eyes sparkled.

"That's preposterous!" exclaimed Igor, expelling saliva as he spoke.

Mr. Sir told him he should wear one set to work in and one set for relaxation.

His mouth was as dry and as parched as the lake.

Stanley stamped down on the back of the blade of the shovel, piercing the hard, dry earth.

As they climbed higher, the patches of weeds grew thicker, and they had to be careful not to get their feet tangled in thorny vines.

"That's preposterous!" exclaimed Igor, expelling saliva as he spoke.

The muscles in his face relaxed.

It was a jagged purple line running from below his eye to below his mouth, like a tattoo of a scar.

Stanley watched the water splatter on the dirt, where it was quickly absorbed by the thirsty ground.

He could see empty jars scattered about.

The roof leaked.

Suddenly, Mr. Sir screamed and clutched his face with both hands.

His body had adjusted somewhat to the heat and harsh conditions.

"There's a water spigot on the wall of the shower stall."

Instead they zigzagged back and forth, increasing their altitude by small increments every time they changed directions.

He knew it was nothing to be proud of, but he felt proud nonetheless.

Elya tried his best to translate it from Latvian into English, but it wasn't the same.

Theodore whirled and grabbed Stanley by his collar.

The apartment smelled the way it did because Stanley's father was trying to invent a way to recycle old sneakers.

Dear Mom and Dad,
Camp is hard, but challenging.

The drought can't last forever.

He kept stepping into, then jumping back from, the spray, until the water shut off automatically.

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.

She pointed her quivering finger in their direction and whispered, "God will punish you!"

Zero concentrated hard, then said, "Chat."

A swarm of gnats hovered around them, attracted by their sweat.

Magnet gestured with his arms to the great expanse around them.

As the ground flattened, a huge stone precipice rose up ahead of him, just barely visible in the moonlight.

He felt Zero's hand clasp his wrist.

His hole was almost up to his shoulders, although it was hard to tell exactly where ground level was because his dirt piles completely surrounded the hole.

It was as if they had been walking across the flat bottom of a giant frying pan, and now they had to somehow climb up out of it.

Zero kept backing up, out past the cluster of holes the boys had been digging, then farther and farther out onto the lake.

There were three dark-purple jagged lines running down his cheek where the Warden had scratched him.

As they climbed higher, the patches of weeds grew thicker, and they had to be careful not to get their feet tangled in thorny vines.

"All right!" said Mr. Pendanski, raising his hand for a high five, but Stanley ignored it.

"Hey, watch it!" said an orange lump on a chair.

Both Mr. Pendanski and X-Ray called him Zero.

On his last day of school, his math teacher, Mrs Bell, taught ratios.

Zero's head knocked against the back of his shoulder as he fell and tumbled into a small muddy gully.

"There was a riot," Mr. Pendanski told her.

His frail body trembled terribly as he climbed the stone wall.

"Put it in gear!" shouted Twitch.

It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!

Myra's father rubbed his chin.

He barely had enough moisture in his mouth to seal and stamp the envelope.

"That's right, my blossom," said her father.

When she looked at you, her eyes seemed to expand, and you felt like she was looking right through you.

"You know, the nursery rhyme?"

Other times they'd run an obstacle course, or go bungee jumping off a table, tied to broken rubber bands.

Mr. Sir filled each of their canteens from a tank of water in the bed of the pickup.

As an example, she chose the heaviest kid in the class and the lightest kid m the class, and had them weigh themselves.

It was layered and streaked with different shades of red, burnt orange, brown, and tan.

As Stanley tried to turn over on his cot, he was afraid it was going to collapse under all his weight.

Every muscle and joint in his body ached as he tried to get out of bed.

As he glared at Mr. Pendanski, his dark eyes seemed to expand.

Two boys, each carrying a shovel, were coming across the compound.

Miss Katherine usually stayed in the schoolhouse, grading papers and such, while Sam worked on the roof.

The vibrations ran up the shaft of the shovel and into Stanley's wrists, making his bones rattle.

She taught classes in the evening for adults, and many of the adults loved her as well.

39

Stanley awoke in a meadow, looking up at the giant rock tower.

Zero concentrated hard, then said, "Chat."

Patches of weeds dotted the mountainside.

The truck stopped, and the dust cloud drifted past it.

Stanley stared up at him, terrified.

"You're a good guy, Caveman."

"He was lucky to have survived," Stanley's mother was quick to point out.

The land was barren and desolate.

"We don't have much time!" urged Katherine.

"No."
Stanley was amazed.

It was full of bumps and holes because so many people had carved their initials into the felt.

The land was barren and desolate.

The lake was so full of holes and mounds that it reminded Stanley of pictures he'd seen of the moon.

Madame Zeroni warned that if he failed to do this, he and his descendants would be doomed for all of eternity.

It was a gold tube, about as long and as wide as the second finger on his right hand.

Though he tried to convince himself otherwise, he'd been aware for a while that his piles of dirt were too close to his hole.

In that split second Stanley thought he saw an unusual rock formation on top of one of the mountain peaks.

He rubbed off some dirt, and the outline of the fish became clearer.

They were definitely looking for something.

There were no mirrors in camp, but he imagined he looked like he had a hard-boiled egg sticking out of him.

They have strong, powerful legs, and can leap out of very deep holes to attack their prey.

There was a hole in the far wall, and an electric fan had been placed in front of it.

The bright sun reflected off the side mirror of the truck, and Stanley had to shield his eyes with his hand.

3

Stanley 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
Stanley 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 stationery his mother had given him He'd promised to write to her at least once a week.

Theodore spit a thin line of saliva between his teeth, causing some of the other boys to complain about the need to keep their "home" sanitary.

He told the boys to come shake Stanley's hand and introduce themselves, "like gentlemen."

And as the truck bounced along the dirt, he was able to appreciate the air blowing through the open window onto his hot and sweaty face.

Even if she didn't love him, couldn't she see what a foul person Igor was?