Cgaerv

There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas. That was over a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland.

There used to be a town of Green Lake as well. The town shriveled and dried up

along with the lake, and the people who lived there.

During the summer the daytime temperature hovers around ninety-five degreesin the shade--if you canfind any shade. There's not much shade in a big dry lake.

The only trees are two old oaks on the eastern edge of the "lake. " A hammock is stretched between thetwo trees, and a log cabin stands behind that.

The campers are forbidden to lie in the hammock. It belongs to the Warden. The Warden owns theshade.

Out on the lake, rattlesnakes and scorpions findshade under rocks and in the holes dug by the campers.
Here's a good rule to remember about rattlesnakes and scorpions: If you don't bother them, they won'tbother you.

Usually.

Being bitten by a scorpion or even a rattlesnake is not the worst thing that can happen to you. You won'tdie.

Usually.

Sometimes a camper will try to be bitten by a scorpion, or even a small rattlesnake.Then he will get tospend a day or two recovering in his tent, instead of having to dig a hole out on the lake

But you don't want to be bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard. That's the worst

thing that can happen to you. You will die a slow and painful death.

Always.

If you get bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard, you might as well go into the shade of the oak trees and lie inthehammock.

There is nothing anyone can do to you anymore.

2

The reader is probably asking: Why would anyone go to Camp Green Lake?

Most campers weren't given a choice. Camp Green Lake is a camp for bad boys.
If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.

That was what some people thought.

Stanley Yelnats was given achoice. The judge said, "You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp GreenLake. "

Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before.

3

Stanley Yelnats was the only passenger on the bus, not counting the driver or the guard The guard satnext to the driver with his seat turned around facing Stanley A rifle lay across his lap

Stanley was sitting about ten rows back,handcuffed to his armrest His backpack lay on the seat next tohim It contained his toothbrush, toothpaste, and a box of stationery his mother had given him He'dpromised to write to her at least once a week.

He looked out the window, although there wasn't much to see--mostly fields of hay and cotton. He wason a long bus ride to nowhere The bus wasn't air-conditioned, and the hot, heavy air wasalmost asstifling as the handcuffs. Stanley and his parents had tried to pretend that he was just going away to camp for a while, just likerich kids do. When Stanley was younger he used to play with stuffed animals, and pretend the animalswere at camp. Camp Fun and Games he called it. Sometimes he'd have them play soccer with a marble. Other times they'd run an obstacle course, or go bungee jumpingoff a table, tied to broken rubberbands. Now Stanley tried to pretend he was going to Camp Fun and Games Maybe he'd make somefriends, he thought. At least he'd get to swim in the lake.

He didn't have any friends at home. He was overweight and the kids at his middle school often teasedhim about his size. Even his teachers sometimes made cruel comments without realizing it. On his last dayofschool, his math teacher, Mrs Bell, taught ratios. As an example, she chose the heaviest kid in the classand the lightest kid m the class, and had them weigh themselves. Stanley weighed three times as much asthe other boy Mrs. Bell wrote the ratio on the board, 3:1, unaware of how much embarrassment she hadcaused both of them.

Stanley was arrested later that day.

He looked at the guard...