108 Fun Facts About Holes

Who wrote the novel Holes?

Louis Sachar's first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, sold poorly at first, yet it slowly won him a devoted following among children.

In which US state is Camp Green Lake located?

Texas: Green Lake was once the largest lake in the state, but the camp now sits on a dry lakebed beside a ghost town.

How big is each hole the boys at Camp Green Lake must dig every day?

Five feet wide and deep, every day; the 2003 film's director has said his crew dug about 400 holes and made them look like thousands.

Why did Stanley have no lawyer at his trial over the sneakers?

His parents couldn't afford one, and only after his father's invention finally works can they hire the lawyer who gets Stanley out.

Who plays Stanley Yelnats in the 2003 film Holes?

Shia LaBeouf plays a Stanley who isn't the book's overweight boy: the director said no child actor could convincingly show the character's weight loss.

Who plays the Warden in the 2003 film Holes?

Sigourney Weaver plays the Warden, who has the boys dig holes to 'build character' while she's secretly hunting for buried treasure.

Clyde 'Sweet Feet' Livingston, whose donated shoes land Stanley in trouble, is a star in which sport?

Baseball star Sweet Feet's sneakers, stolen by Zero, fell from an overpass onto Stanley, who was then convicted of taking them.

What nickname do the other campers give Stanley?

Caveman is what the D Tent boys call him, and the soft, bullied newcomer slowly grows stronger as he digs day after day.

What is Zero's real first name?

Hector Zeroni turns out to be the great-great-great-grandson of Madame Zeroni, the fortune teller whose curse haunts Stanley's family.

What does Stanley agree to teach Zero in exchange for help digging?

To read: Zero learns quickly, though Mr. Pendanski keeps insisting he's too stupid to learn.

Mr. Sir is constantly eating what?

Sunflower seeds are Mr. Sir's stand-in for cigarettes: he has quit smoking and chews them constantly instead.

What happens at Camp Green Lake for the first time in 110 years as Stanley is driven away?

It rains: not a drop had fallen on Green Lake since the day Sam was killed, so the downpour hints that an old wrong is finally over.

Who plays Mr. Sir in the 2003 film Holes?

Jon Voight plays Mr. Sir, who, once the Warden has scratched his face, takes revenge on Stanley by refusing to fill his canteen.

Why do the deadly lizards leave Stanley and Zero alone at the end?

The boys smell of onions: yellow-spotted lizards don't like onion blood, and Stanley and Zero had been living on Sam's wild onions.

What did Katherine Barlow, the schoolteacher, become famous for making?

Spiced peaches were her specialty, and trading jars of them with Sam, who then fixed up her schoolhouse, is how their romance began.

Which Camp Green Lake camper is the hero of the spin-off novel Small Steps?

Armpit is the hero of Small Steps, trying to turn his life around beside his ten-year-old neighbor Ginny.

Where does X-Ray's nickname come from?

Pig Latin for his real name, Rex, and X-Ray later tries to shame Stanley out of letting Zero dig part of his hole.

Why is Charles Walker nicknamed 'Trout'?

His feet smell like dead fish, and after Katherine Barlow rejects him, the wealthy Trout later shoots Sam dead on the lake.

The Warden wears nail polish laced with what?

Rattlesnake venom is in the polish she's wearing when she swipes Mr. Sir across the face for bothering her, and he collapses in pain.

What is the Warden's catchphrase?

'Excuse me?' is the Warden's quiet warning, and once the attorney general shuts the camp down, she is forced to sell the land.

How is the Warden related to Charles 'Trout' Walker?

She is his granddaughter, and her family has hunted Kate Barlow's loot since Kissin' Kate let a lizard bite her rather than tell Trout where it was.

How did Kissin' Kate Barlow earn her nickname?

She kissed the men she killed, while men she only robbed, like Stanley's great-grandfather, were left alive in the desert.

What does Stanley find in his hole with the initials 'KB' on it?

A lipstick tube: Stanley hands it to X-Ray, who 'finds' it next morning for a day off, and the Warden has the boys dig that area for days.

In which country does Stanley's great-great-grandfather Elya Yelnats grow up?

Latvia is where Elya grew up, until he sailed to America and his family's long run of bad luck began.

Who is the girl Elya Yelnats hopes to marry?

Myra Menke: Madame Zeroni warns that her head is as empty as a flowerpot, and Elya ends up marrying another woman in America instead.

What promise to Madame Zeroni does Elya fail to keep?

To carry her up the mountain; generations later Stanley carries her descendant Zero up a mountain, which seems to break the family curse.

How does the Yelnats family insult go: Stanley's 'no-good-dirty-rotten-...-great-great-grandfather'?

Pig-stealing is the family's joke charge against Elya, yet Madame Zeroni gave him that piglet; what he really broke was a promise to her.

Stanley Yelnats I survived a desert robbery by climbing a mountain the family calls what?

God's Thumb hid Sam's old field, and a century later that same spot keeps Stanley and Zero alive too.

What does Zero use his share of the suitcase money to pay for?

Private investigators track down his mother, and at a party a year and a half later she sings him a verse of the Yelnats family lullaby.

Who directed the 2003 film Holes?

Andrew Davis, director of The Fugitive, talked the novel's author into writing the screenplay, his first.

Which prize did Holes win in 1999?

The Newbery Medal went to a law-school graduate who did part-time legal work until his children's books sold well enough for him to quit.

What is Mr. Sir's real name, revealed in the 2003 film Holes?

Marion Sevillo is his real name: the film makes Mr. Sir a paroled criminal, arrested at the end for carrying a gun.

What do the boys call Mr. Pendanski?

Mom is the boys' name for him, though in the film he calls himself Dr. Pendanski and is exposed as a fake doctor.

How does the girl Elya loves choose between Elya and his rival?

She has each man guess a number, and Elya, realizing Madame Zeroni was right about her, tells her to marry his rival instead.

Which camper left before Stanley arrived after deliberately getting a snake to bite him?

Barf Bag let a snake bite him on purpose so he'd be sent to the hospital and escape the digging.

What is Sam's beloved donkey called?

Mary Lou is also the name on Sam's boat, which Zero later finds overturned in the desert and shelters under.

In the novel Holes, what are Camp Green Lake's only trees?

Two oak trees by the Warden's cabin hold a hammock the boys are forbidden to use, because the Warden owns the shade.

What animals played the yellow-spotted lizards in the 2003 film Holes?

Bearded dragons were used, and real ones crawled over the two boys in the treasure-hole scene, while computers created some of the lizard action.

Which actor says he was signed to play Stanley in the 2003 film Holes before choosing a spy comedy?

Frankie Muniz has said everyone pushed him toward Holes for its story, yet he picked Agent Cody Banks right away.

Who plays Madame Zeroni in the 2003 film Holes?

Eartha Kitt, Catwoman in the Batman TV series' final season, plays Madame Zeroni, whose curse follows Elya's family for generations.

Who plays Sam, Katherine Barlow's love interest, in the 2003 film Holes?

Dulé Hill plays Sam, and once he and Katherine are seen kissing, the townspeople burn down her schoolhouse.

Which real-life NBA player appears in the 2003 film Holes as Clyde 'Sweet Feet' Livingston?

Rick Fox, then a Lakers forward, plays Sweet Feet, who ends up starring in an ad for the invention made by Stanley's father.

What does Stanley steal to go after Zero in the desert?

The water truck ends up in a hole almost at once, so Stanley goes after Zero on foot.

What does Stanley write to his mother?

He's having a great time, which is a lie: he writes about all the fun he's having at a camp that doesn't even have a lake.

What does Katherine Barlow do three days after Sam is killed?

She shoots the sheriff who had refused to help her and demanded a kiss, then spends twenty years as a feared outlaw.

At the end of the novel Holes, Camp Green Lake is set to become a camp for which group?

The Girl Scouts are the group it's slated for, ironic after Mr. Sir kept telling the boys this was no Girl Scout camp.

Which Adam Sandler comedy kept Holes out of the top spot on its 2003 opening weekend?

Anger Management won that weekend, yet Roger Ebert wrote how much more 'grown up and sophisticated' Holes was than the Sandler comedy.

Once Zero's camp records turn out to be missing, what does Stanley's lawyer, Ms. Morengo, do?

Takes him along too, since the Warden can't produce the records she had destroyed to cover up his escape.

What earned Stanley Yelnats I the fortune Kissin' Kate Barlow stole?

The stock market: generations later, Stanley digs up his great-grandfather's stolen suitcase and splits the fortune with Zero.

What does Stanley dig up early on that Mr. Pendanski says the Warden won't care about?

A fossil, which wins him no day off, and X-Ray then tells Stanley to hand over anything he finds next.

Which actor plays Zero in the 2003 film Holes?

Khleo Thomas has said the boys spent their first month on set in physical training, running, climbing ropes and digging holes.

Which Camp Green Lake boy has frizzy hair that makes him look like he's been electrocuted?

Zigzag later picks a fight with Stanley over Zero digging his hole, and Zero nearly chokes him unconscious.

Why is José nicknamed Magnet?

He is good at stealing, and when he steals from Mr. Sir, Stanley takes the blame and is marched off to the Warden.

In Small Steps, X-Ray drags his old campmate into a scheme involving what?

Scalping concert tickets goes wrong when X-Ray's tickets turn out to be copies, and the pop star Kaira DeLeon ends up befriending his partner.

The author says he didn't live near a youth detention camp, so what inspired Holes?

Miserable summer heat: back from a cool vacation in Maine to oppressive heat, he started writing about a place where boys dig holes day after day.

What does Zero call the old jarred food he survives on under the overturned boat?

Sploosh is Zero's name for the old jars he found under the boat, and the invention Stanley's father finally makes is later sold under that name too.

The 2003 film Holes shot its desert camp scenes on a dry lake bed in which state?

California: in that desert heat, the young actor playing Zero shot his fight scene with a painful heat rash.

Which studio got involved in Holes only near the end of filming, mainly to distribute it?

Disney: it went on to team up with Walden Media, the company behind Holes, again for The Chronicles of Narnia.

What kind of word is Stanley Yelnats, which the author of Holes says spared him inventing a surname?

A palindrome, it reads the same in both directions; the author spelled Stanley backwards meaning to change it later, and never did.

In Holes, how does the outlaw Kate Barlow die after refusing to say where her loot is buried?

A lizard bite kills Kate Barlow, who dies laughing because she knows her captors will never find the treasure. She had spent twenty years as an outlaw.

In Holes, what does Stanley's luckless inventor father finally come up with at the end of the novel?

A foot odor cure finally makes the family's fortune, and the sports star whose stolen shoes started all the trouble ends up advertising it.

In Holes, how do the famous stolen sneakers reach Stanley on his walk home from school?

They fall off an overpass and hit him on the head, and he runs home hoping they will help his father's experiments, which is when the police stop him.

According to Mr. Pendanski in Holes, why is the quietest boy in Stanley's group known as Zero?

His head is empty, the counselor sneers, yet Zero's real surname is Zeroni and he turns out to be bright, quick to learn and the best digger in camp.

Offered jail or Camp Green Lake by a judge in Holes, why does Stanley choose the camp?

He's never been to one: his family is too poor for summer camp, so he pictures the kind of place rich children go.

In Holes, what color are the two jumpsuits Mr. Sir issues to every new arrival at Camp Green Lake?

Orange jumpsuits come in pairs, one for work and one for relaxation, and only one set gets washed every three days.

In Holes, what does the Warden promise any camper who digs up something she finds interesting?

A day off is the prize, which is why X-Ray, a year into his time at camp, tells Stanley to hand over anything he finds.

In Holes, what does Zero smash across Mr. Pendanski's face before running away into the desert?

A shovel does the damage, moments after Mr. Pendanski sneers that it has more brains than Zero does.

In Holes, how does Zero show that the buried suitcase belongs to Stanley rather than the Warden?

His name is on it: Zero, long dismissed by the staff as stupid, is the one who spots Stanley Yelnats printed on the case.

In Holes, what does Stanley's mother refuse to believe in, despite the family's rotten luck?

Curses get the blame all the same: the family jokes that every misfortune goes back to an ancestor's broken promise.

In Holes, where does Madame Zeroni urge the lovesick Elya Yelnats to go, as her own son had done?

America is where he sails after the pig contest, in such a hurry that he forgets what he owes the old woman.

In Holes, the sneakers Stanley is accused of stealing had been donated to raise money for what?

A homeless shelter was auctioning the shoes, and their owner, Clyde Livingston, had once lived there himself as a boy.

Which children's television show does Stanley ask Zero about in Holes, only to get a blank stare?

Sesame Street means nothing to Zero, who has also never heard of the old woman who lived in a shoe, a nursery rhyme in a letter from Stanley's mother.

In Holes, which part of Katherine Barlow's schoolhouse does Sam fix first, starting a friendship?

The roof had a hole in it, and once it was patched she kept finding him more to fix because she enjoyed their talks.

In Holes, what does Elya Yelnats do on the last day of fattening his pig, breaking his routine?

He takes a bath instead, and at the weigh-in his pig turns out exactly as heavy as his rival's.

In Holes, Madame Zeroni sends Elya's piglet to drink from a stream with which strange property?

It runs uphill, a detail that returns at Sam's secret field across Green Lake, where the water does the same.

The Yelnats family lullaby in Holes is about a wolf and which bird, both wishing life were easier?

A woodpecker shares the song with the wolf, and Zero's mother turns out to know the same tune with different words.

In Holes, Stanley finds that Zero, written off as stupid, is surprisingly good at what?

Math comes easily to Zero, who explains that he isn't stupid at all: he just doesn't like answering questions.

In Holes, what does the impatient Warden jab at a camper, knocking him into a hole?

A pitchfork leaves spots of blood on the boy's shirt, after a week and a half of fruitless digging has worn her patience thin.

Which actress plays the schoolteacher turned outlaw Kate Barlow in the 2003 film Holes?

Patricia Arquette, known then for True Romance, later won an Academy Award for Boyhood, a film shot over the twelve years from 2002.

Which character actor plays the smiling but cruel counselor Mr. Pendanski in the 2003 film Holes?

Tim Blake Nelson, a veteran character actor, later joined the Marvel films as Samuel Sterns, the villain known as the Leader.

Which Happy Days star plays Stanley's father, a luckless inventor, in the 2003 film Holes?

Henry Winkler, forever the Fonz, plays Stanley Yelnats III; that same year he began publishing the Hank Zipzer children's books, drawn from his own dyslexia.

The director of the film Holes wanted to show he could do more than action hits like which thriller?

The Fugitive and Collateral Damage were his kind of film until then; to adapt Holes he and the novel's author mapped out over 100 scenes on note cards.

The young star of the 2003 film Holes was still working on which television sitcom during the shoot?

Even Stevens was still in production, so he worked on the film after taping the sitcom; Holes became his first movie released in theaters.

Which trait of Stanley in the novel Holes did the 2003 film drop as too hard to show convincingly?

He is overweight in the book and slims down as he digs, a change the filmmakers felt they could not show convincingly in live action.

Which habit of the actor playing Mr. Sir made young castmates uneasy on the set of the film Holes?

Staying in character between takes, he remained the menacing Mr. Sir off camera, which the film's young star later said left the cast uncomfortable.

What title does Mr. Pendanski use in the 2003 film Holes, where he is exposed as an impostor?

Doctor Pendanski is arrested at the end of the film for impersonating one; in the novel he is plain Mr. Pendanski.

Under what group name did the young cast of the 2003 film Holes record the soundtrack single Dig It?

The D-Tent Boys took their name from the tent Stanley's group shares, and their video for the single played regularly on the Disney Channel.

In Holes, which school bully's story about a notebook in a toilet ends up proving Stanley innocent?

Derrick Dunne admitted Stanley was still fishing his notebook out of the toilet minutes after the theft, so his own tormentor became his alibi.

As Stanley leaves Camp Green Lake in Holes, which boy asks him to phone his mother and say sorry?

Squid, who once scowled at Stanley for writing home and was heard crying one night, hands over his mother's phone number.

In Holes, the fidgety newcomer Twitch takes over Zero's empty cot after being arrested for what?

Stealing cars is his specialty; X-Ray names him Twitch because he cannot keep still, though his real name is Brian.

In Holes, how does Mr. Sir take revenge on Stanley after the Warden scratches his face?

He denies him water, refusing to fill Stanley's canteen out on the lake bed, so Stanley has to ration every drop.

Which state official arrives at Camp Green Lake with Ms. Morengo to set Stanley free in Holes?

The attorney general goes on to shut the camp down, and the Warden is forced to sell the land her family had been digging since she was a child.

The novel Holes ends with a party at the Yelnats home during which televised sporting event?

The Super Bowl party celebrates a new commercial in which Clyde Livingston endorses the family's product, with Zero and his mother among the guests.

What does Stanley's family buy with their half of the treasure at the end of the novel Holes?

A new house replaces the cramped apartment whose landlord had threatened eviction over the smell of the father's experiments.

In Holes, what color are the teeth of the deadly yellow-spotted lizard, set against a white tongue?

Black teeth and a white tongue stand out more than the eleven spots, which are hard to see against its yellow-green body.

In Holes, where did Zero's mother tell him to wait for her on the day she never came back?

A park is where he waited for a month before giving up; living on the streets, he slept in one near where Stanley lived.

In Holes, the first Stanley Yelnats survives the desert and marries a woman of what profession?

A nurse at the hospital where he recovered became his wife; family legend says he took her for an angel.

How long is Stanley's sentence at Camp Green Lake in Holes, the same time the novel took to write?

Eighteen months is the sentence the judge hands down; the author says the book took him a year and a half to write, and he told nobody about it, not even his wife.

In Holes, what do the boys believe the Warden has placed all around camp, even in the showers?

Hidden cameras and microphones are the boys' explanation for how she knew to call Stanley by his new nickname.

In Holes, why does the Warden order Zero's camp files destroyed after he runs off into the desert?

To avoid an inquiry into a boy she presumes dead, she counts on nobody ever asking after a friendless ward of the state.

Which zany book series did the author of Holes base on children he met as a teacher's aide?

Wayside School grew out of his time as a lunchtime yard supervisor at Hillside Elementary, and he wrote the first book while working in a sweater warehouse.

Which profession did the author of Holes train for and practice part-time until his books sold well?

The law came first: he finished law school in 1980, passed the bar and kept up part-time legal work until 1989, when writing finally paid enough.

Which card game does the author of Holes play in tournaments and make the subject of a later novel?

Bridge is his passion: he plays duplicate tournaments across the country, and his novel The Cardturner follows Alton, who turns cards for his blind great-uncle.

Who in the author's life wanted Holes to be titled Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Kid?

His daughter Sherre pushed for that title, and the author admits he didn't think Holes was a very good title himself.

Which fantasy novel's short, jumpy opening chapters does the author of Holes cite as an influence?

The Princess Bride, with its colorful characters and bizarre setting, shaped Holes; he says he learned to write for children by reading books for adults.

Published a month before the film, the 2003 companion book to Holes takes the form of what?

A survival guide narrated by Stanley, it offers advice on digging the perfect hole and avoiding scorpions, tarantulas and Mr. Sir.

In Holes, the initials KB on Stanley's most important find are engraved inside which shape?

A heart surrounds the letters, a fitting mark for an outlaw whose story began with a forbidden romance.

Which cereal do Stanley and Zero find sickeningly sweet in Holes after days of wild mountain food?

Frosted Flakes, fetched by Zero when he sneaks into camp for supplies, taste revolting after more than a week of living off the mountain.