Middle-grade student Stanley Yelnats came from a luckless family and always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.While walking home from school one day，he was hit over the head with a pair of sneakers that fell from a freeway overpass.Stanley was stopped by the police and arrested.It turned out the sneakers had been stolen from a homeless shelter where they were being auctioned off to raise money.He was taken to court and sentenced to a crime he didn't commit.As a result，Stanley was sent to Camp Green Lake，a juvenile detention center.
Camp Green Lake，located in the heat of West Texas，had no lake and was certainly not green.Every morning，the boys at Camp Green Lake were sent out to the dried-up lake bed where they were made to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet wide.“You're digging to build character，”the counselors told Stanley，but he became suspicious when he was told to turn in anything“interesting”that he dug up.
Stanley blamed all his bad luck on his great-great-grandfather，Elya Yelnats，who had failed to fulfill his promise made to Madame Zeroni.She had cursed Elya and his descendants，and from then on bad luck had befallen every Yelnats generation.
While digging his required hole，Stanley found a lipstick tube belonging to“Kissin'Kate Barlow，”a notorious outlaw.Miss Katherine Barlow was the teacher in the town of Green Lake，before the lake dried up 110 years ago.She fell in love with Sam，the onion man.Because she was white and Sam was black，their love had tragic consequences.When Sam kissed Katherine and a local woman saw it，Sam became a wanted man and Kate became an outcast.Sam was shot to death as he tried to escape in a boat.Katherine's heart was broken，and she became an outlaw after killing the sheriff.Her life destroyed，Katherine Barlow became“Kissin'Kate Barlow.”She once robbed Stanley's greatgrandfather and left him stranded in the desert.She eventually returned to Green Lake，and buried her loot somewhere in the lake bed.She died from a yellowspotted lizard bite before Trout Walker could force her to reveal the location of the treasure she had buried.
Stanley agreed to teach one of the other boys，Zero，how to read，which got both boys into trouble and caused Zero to run away from the camp.Desperate to help Zero，Stanley attempted to steal Mr.Sir's truck and rescue Zero.Lack of driving skill landed Stanley in one of the holes，but he continued his search in the harsh desert.After he found Zero under the rotted hull of a boat，they headed for“God's thumb，”a rock formation in the desert fit the description of the place in which his great-grandfather had sought refuge to survive after being robbed by Kate Barlow.They eventually made it to the mountain，but Zero was too weak to climb，and Stanley ended up carrying him to the top of the mountain.“Zero，”it turned out，was short for“Zeroni，”and he was Madame Zeroni's descendant；consequently，the curse was broken.(www.xing528.com)
The boys built their strength by eating the healing onions planted years ago on God's thumb by Sam.Zero confessed that he was the one who stole the sneakers from the homeless shelter.Stanley and Zero decided to return to Camp Green Lake to look for Kate Barlow's buried treasure in the same hole where the lipstick tube had been found.Under cover of night，the boys returned to the hole where Stanley had found the lipstick tube.They dug and unearthed a suitcase when the Warden，Trout Walker's descendant，appeared.In the light of flashlights，the boys saw that they were covered with deadly yellow-spotted lizards.They stayed completely still until the sun rose and the lizards went down into the shade，off of them.By then the State Attorney General and a lawyer hired by Stanley's father arrived.The Warden tried to claim the suitcase as her own，but Zero，using his newly acquired reading skills，deciphered the name Stanley Yelnats on the side of the suitcase.
Stanley refused to leave Camp Green Lake without Zero.During their ordeal in the desert，the boys formed a real friendship.Since Mr.Pendanski had erased Zero's files from the computer system，Stanley knew his friend was in danger of being erased，too.The Attorney General couldn't determine why Zero had been sent to the camp，so the two boys got to leave the camp with the suitcase.
The two boys shared the treasure，which was enough for Stanley to buy his family a new home with a laboratory for his father，and for Zero to hire private detectives to find his long-lost mother.Camp Green Lake was closed and turned into a Girl Scout camp.
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