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Literature-based Skill Building:
Holes by Louis Sachar

Chapters 6 and 7

Learning Log (optional)

Flashbacks

Many books tell a story by starting at the beginning, telling you what happened, and ending at the end.

Holes does not do this. We find out why Stanley is at Camp Green Lake after he gets there, and little by little we find out more about what happened.

Holes also has something called flashbacks. In the middle of the story, FLASH! we are zapped back in time and we find out about things that happened a long time ago that are important to Stanley, even though he doesn't know it. We don't really know how they will be important -- but we can make inferences about them.

Whenever there are extra blank lines on the page, ask yourself "why??" Usually the setting is changing to a different time or place, or a lot of time passes by. Sometimes the pause is because something very important has happened or been said.

In chapter 7, what is the first sentence of the "flashback to his grandfather's time?

What is the setting (time and place)?

Find the country Latvia on the maps below; it is abbreviated as "Lat." in the second map because it is small, and close to some other countries.

Find a map of the world. Where is Latvia on it?

Here is a new "character" -- an animal. Why is a pig important to this flashback story?

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Theme: Perseverance

Madame Zeroni gives Elya advice about the girl he loves. She tells him to do something.

Why is Elya going to need perseverance to do as Madame Zeroni asks?

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