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60 free Holes trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
56 free Holes trivia questions with answers. Holes is the rare book that kids read for school and then keep on the shelf, and the 2003 movie is just as loved. This quiz covers both: Stanley Yelnats and Zero at Camp Green Lake, the Warden with her venomous nail polish, Mr. Sir and his sunflower seeds, the D-Tent nicknames, the hundred-year-old story of Kissin' Kate Barlow and Sam, the curse that started with Elya Yelnats and Madame Zeroni, and the two companion books, Small Steps and Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide. About a third of the questions are easy enough for a fourth-grader who just finished the book. The rest climb through the film's cast and production, the awards, and details only a re-reader remembers, like the name of Sam's donkey or how Myra Menke tried to pick a husband. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the novel, the film, the author and the sequels, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
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Q 01Who wrote the novel Holes?
Louis Sachar
He also wrote the Wayside School books, but Holes is the outlier in his catalogue for its tangled, multi-generational plot.
Q 02In which US state is Camp Green Lake located?
Texas
The camp's name is a joke: there is no lake, no shade and no green.
Q 03How big must each hole the boys dig every day be?
Five feet wide and five feet deep
The boys measure with their shovels, which are conveniently five feet long.
Q 04What is special about the name Stanley Yelnats?
It reads the same backwards as forwards
Stanley is the fourth boy in his family to carry the name, which is why he keeps blaming his ancestors for his luck.
Q 05Who plays Stanley Yelnats in the 2003 film?
Shia LaBeouf
It was his first theatrical film; he was still taping Even Stevens at the same time.
Q 06Who plays the Warden in the film?
Sigourney Weaver
The Warden gets a rare thing in a children's film: a villain role for an actress best known for fighting aliens.
Q 07Clyde 'Sweet Feet' Livingston, whose donated shoes land Stanley in trouble, is a star in which sport?
Baseball
The shoes literally fall out of the sky onto Stanley as he walks under an overpass.
Q 08What nickname do the other campers give Stanley?
Caveman
X-Ray hands out the name, and it comes with a promotion of one place in the water line.
Q 09What is Zero's real first name?
Hector
His surname is Zeroni, which is the key that unlocks the whole curse plot.
Q 10What does Stanley agree to teach Zero in exchange for help digging?
To read
The deal is the start of the friendship that eventually saves both boys.
Q 11Mr. Sir is constantly eating what?
Sunflower seeds
It is his substitute for smoking, and it makes him no less grumpy.
Q 12What happens at Camp Green Lake for the first time in 110 years as Stanley is driven away?
It rains
The drought began the day Sam was killed, so the ending closes that story too.
Q 13Who plays Mr. Sir in the film?
Jon Voight
The young cast found him unnerving because he stayed in character between takes.
Q 14Why do the deadly lizards leave Stanley and Zero alone at the end?
Q 21How is the Warden related to Charles 'Trout' Walker?
She is his granddaughter
Her family have been digging for Kate Barlow's loot since before she was born.
Q 22How did Kissin' Kate Barlow earn her nickname?
She left a kiss on the cheek of every man she killed
In the book she only kisses the men she kills; those she merely robs are left to the desert.
Q 23What does Stanley find in his hole with the initials 'KB' on it?
A lipstick tube
He hands it to X-Ray, who 'finds' it the next morning to earn the whole group a search zone.
The boys smell of onions
Sam the farmer swore his crop was a cure for everything, and it turns out he was right.
Q 15What did Katherine Barlow, the schoolteacher, become famous for making?
Spiced peaches
She traded jars of them for produce, which is how her romance with Sam began.
Q 16Which camper got his nickname after being stung by a scorpion?
Armpit
He is the only D-Tent boy to get his own book, the 2006 spin-off Small Steps.
Q 17X-Ray's nickname comes from what?
Pig Latin for his real name, Rex
He can barely see without his glasses, which makes the name a joke on several levels.
Q 18Why is Charles Walker nicknamed 'Trout'?
His feet smell like dead fish
Clyde Livingston has the very same foot fungus, which is why Stanley's father's invention finds a famous customer.
Q 19The Warden wears nail polish laced with what?
Rattlesnake venom
She scratches Mr. Sir with it, and his face swells for the rest of the book.
Q 20What is the Warden's catchphrase?
'Excuse me?'
Mr. Sir owns the Girl Scouts line; the Warden's two quiet words are far scarier.
Q 24In which country does Stanley's great-great-grandfather Elya Yelnats grow up?
Latvia
The book gives no exact date but places Elya's story around the middle of the 19th century.
Q 25Who is the girl Elya Yelnats hopes to marry?
Myra Menke
Madame Zeroni warns him her head is as empty as a flowerpot, and she turns out to be right.
Q 26What promise to Madame Zeroni does Elya fail to keep?
To carry her up the mountain
Generations later Stanley carries her descendant up a mountain, which is what finally lifts the curse.
Q 27How does the Yelnats family insult go: Stanley's 'no-good-dirty-rotten-...-great-great-grandfather'?
pig-stealing
The joke is that Elya never actually stole a pig; the family just needs someone to blame.
Q 28Stanley Yelnats I survived a desert robbery by climbing a mountain the family calls what?
God's Thumb
It turns out to be the site of Sam's old field, still growing wild crops a century later.
Q 29The suitcase Stanley and Zero dig up contains financial instruments worth roughly how much?
Nearly $2 million
Zero uses his share to hire private investigators to track down his mother.
Q 30Who directed the 2003 film Holes?
Andrew Davis
He was best known for action thrillers such as The Fugitive and wanted to prove he could do something else.