THEME 6 MAPPING MILESTONES It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!
He smiled. It was a family joke. Whenever anything went wrong, they always blamed Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.
Supposedly, he had a great-great-grandfather who had stolen a pig from a one-legged Gypsy, and she put a curse on him and all his descendants. Stanley and his parents didn’t believe in curses, of course, but whenever anything went wrong, it felt good to be able to blame someone.
Things went wrong a lot. They always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Discuss
1. Have you ever been wrongfully accused of something? 2. Suggest a reason why you think Stanley was arrested. 3. Do you think that challenging experiences in life can help to make you stronger?
Understand
1. What items does Stanley’s backpack contain? 2. What can Stanley see when he looks out the window? 3. What game did Stanley play when he was younger? 4. What did Stanley promise his mother he would do? 5. What was Stanley’s family joke?
Explore 3
3 3
1. What was the atmosphere on the bus like?
2. Do you think that Mrs Bell was wrong to teach ratios in the way that she did? Explain your answer.
3. From reading the above passage, what age do you imagine Stanley to be? Give a reason for your answer.
4. Would this extract make you to want to read the rest of the novel Holes? Give reasons for your answer.
Create
Write the diary entry that you imagine Stanley could have written the night before his journey to the juvenile detention camp.
