Holes — Chapter 18

About This Passage

In the last chapter Zigzag's shovel hit Stanley in the head and made a gash. In this chapter, the next morning, we learn how hurt Stanley really is — the side of his head has swollen up so big that he pictures it as a hard-boiled egg poking out of him. Sachar uses a funny picture (an egg!) to describe something that is really not funny at all: a boy at a camp with no mirrors, no nurse, and no one to check if he is okay. Copying this passage lets a young reader feel how Stanley has learned to make jokes to himself about the bad things that happen to him, because there is nobody else in the camp to make jokes with.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 18 in your own words. Start with the boys going back to digging their own holes again (not the big one), then Stanley's swollen head, then Stanley writing a letter to his mom and dad with made-up stories about rock climbing and obstacle courses, then Zero coming in and asking Stanley to teach him to read, then Stanley saying no two times, and finally the narrator telling us that Stanley's heart has gotten hard like his hands.

Discussion Questions

1. What in the story tells you that Stanley is glad to be out of the one big hole and back in his own small hole, even though he is hurt?
2. What in the story tells you that Stanley is making up a pretend story in the letter to his mom, instead of telling her the truth about how hard camp is?

+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide