Holes

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

What might be the purpose of a juvenile camp? Why might some adults believe that a detention center is more effective than jail for young adults?

Teaching Suggestion: The novel’s protagonist, Stanley, is falsely accused of stealing shoes from a famous baseball player and sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center in a rural setting. With sensitivity to individual student experiences in mind, it might be helpful to initially discuss juvenile detention centers and their purpose, while alluding to the fact that Camp Green Lake is a satirical invention and has many differences from actual detention centers with regard to setting and purpose.

• This article from the time period just before the book’s publication offers some description for a juvenile camp from the mid-1990s and its intended outcomes.
• This website describes the three priorities of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which leads efforts to transform the juvenile justice system.

Short Activity

Read the questions and describe how you can or cannot relate to the topics based on your own experience.