Holes — Chapter 50

About This Passage

This is the very last thing that happens in the whole book. The woman is Hector’s mother, and the song she is humming is the same lullaby that his great-great-great-grandmother used to sing to her children a hundred years ago. This one sentence quietly shows the child that Hector has his mother back, and the family song is still being sung.

Narration Prompt

Tell a grown-up what happens at the end of the book. Name the people at the Yelnats house party — Stanley, Hector, Ms. Morengo, Clyde ‘Sweet Feet’ Livingston, Clyde’s wife, and Hector’s mother. Explain what is inside Stanley’s suitcase, why Camp Green Lake is being turned into a Girl Scout camp, and what Hector’s mother is doing and humming at the very end.

Discussion Questions

1. At the party, Clyde Livingston is on the TV doing a commercial, but he is ALSO sitting right next to Stanley on the couch. What in the story makes this the funny opposite of what happened in the beginning of the book, when a pair of Clyde Livingston’s old sneakers got Stanley into so much trouble?
2. A woman at the party is gently fluffing Hector’s hair with her fingers while she hums a song. How do you know, without the book telling you in so many words, that this woman is Hector’s mother and that this is the reunion Hector has been looking for the whole book?

+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide