Holes by William Sachar

Although Stanley is innocent of the crime he's accused of, he doesn't get worked up over the judge's decision to punish him. He blames it all on his family's bad luck.

It was all thanks to his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather, Elya Yelnats, who apparently stole a pig from an old Gypsy. She put a curse on him and all his descendants.

There's much more to this story, which is gradually revealed in Holes. How and why Stanley's great-great-grandfather was cursed turns out to be very important toward the end of the story.

Enduring hardships: The boys at Camp Green Lake have to toil in the hot sun every day. It's hard and miserable, but Stanley grows stronger as a result.

Bad luck: The story implies that the real reason Stanley is having such a rough time is because he's cursed with his family's bad luck. One way to look at it is that sometimes bad things happen to good people through no fault of their own.

The author, Louis Sachar, said Holes was inspired by the Texas summer heat. To quote Sachar, "Anybody who has ever tried to do yard work in Texas in July can easily imagine Hell to be a place where you are required to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet across day after day under the brutal Texas sun."

Although the inspiration for Sachar's stories often begin with a character, Holes all began with a place: Camp Green Lake. Though Green Lake is dry, barren, and infested with rattlesnakes, there was a time when it was beautiful and pleasant. Stanley Yelnats might be the protagonist, but in a way Holes is really Camp Green Lake's story.

Don't try to find Camp Green Lake on a Texas map, though. It was all invented by the author.