How real is that story? Holes, by Sachar

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The camp in the story is set at the edge of a huge dry lake in Texas

I don’t know about you, but I often pick up a book someone has recommended, read a few paragraphs, and then put it down again forever. Holes, by Louis Sachar, was one of those books for me. Yes, it was supposed to be good, but when I opened it, I found a story about a fat boy named Stanley at a camp for delinquents in Texas. None of those things appealed to me and, having spent several years of my youth in an unpleasantly hot place, I was not anxious to relive that.

Over the years since Holes first came out, though, so many people told me it was a classic that I had to give it another chance. And of course I was hooked! It’s a wonderful story about friendship and loyalty and redemption, and very satisfyingly plotted as well.

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“Zero” and “Caveman” are the heroes of the story

The dangerous “yellow-spotted lizards,” which can kill you with one bite of their black teeth, feature heavily in the story. In my copy-editor mode, I went looking to see if they were real. Sure enough, I discovered a Wikipedia article about Lepidophyma flavimaculatum, the yellow-spotted tropical night lizard that ranges “from central Mexico to Texas” and does, in fact, have black teeth and a white tongue, just as Holes describes it. (There were lots of other Holes fans looking for the same information.) However, although its bite is “painful,” it wouldn’t kill you.

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The real yellow-spotted lizard of Texas

After reading a story I like, I often find myself going to the internet to find out more– do you?