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適讀人群 :9歲及以上 《尋寶小子》所獲奬項: 一九九九年紐伯瑞金奬
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內容簡介
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.
少年葉那茨·斯坦利被人誤指偷竊瞭一雙球鞋,被迫進入綠營湖基地接受十八個月的懲罰,在那裏遇到瞭許多和他一樣在接受懲罰的少年,而挖洞就是他們每天的任務。在綠營湖的日子裏,他結交到一個好朋友,盡管他們的祖先之間曾有過仇恨,兩人還是同甘共苦,一起逃離,一起流浪。曆經艱難後的他們究竟會受到怎樣的對待呢?而深藏在洞中的巨大秘密又是什麼呢?
作者簡介
Louis Sachar's popular books include
There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom and
Dogs Don't Tell Jokes.
路易斯·撒察爾,生於一九五四年三月,美國著名的兒童文學作傢。其代錶作包括《路邊學校的故事》、《尋寶小子》等,後者為他贏得瞭國傢圖書奬和美國兒童文學的最高奬——紐伯瑞金奬。《尋寶小子》是首部同時獲得這兩項大奬的小說。
內頁插圖
精彩書評
Stanley Yelnats IV has been wrongly accused of stealing a famous baseball player's valued sneakers and is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention home where the boys dig holes, five feet deep by five feet across, in the miserable Texas heat. It's just one more piece of bad luck that's befallen Stanley's family for generations as a result of the infamous curse of Madame Zeroni. Overweight Stanley, his hands bloodied from digging, figures that at the end of his sentence, he'll "...either be in great physical condition or else dead." Overcome by the useless work and his own feelings of futility, fellow inmate Zero runs away into the arid, desolate surroundings and Stanley, acting on impulse, embarks on a risky mission to save him. He unwittingly lays Madame Zeroni's curse to rest, finds buried treasure, survives yellow-spotted lizards, and gains wisdom and inner strength from the quirky turns of fate. In the almost mystical progress of their ascent of the rock edifice known as "Big Thumb," they discover their own invaluable worth and unwavering friendship. Each of the boys is painted as a distinct individual through Sachar's deftly chosen words. The author's ability to knit Stanley and Zero's compelling story in and out of a history of intriguing ancestors is captivating. Stanley's wit, integrity, faith, and wistful innocence will charm readers. A multitude of colorful characters coupled with the skillful braiding of ethnic folklore, American legend, and contemporary issues is a brilliant achievement. There is no question, kids will love Holes.
--Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY
"A dazzling blend of social commentary, tall tale and magic realism."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred
"There is no question, kids will love Holes."
--School Library Journal, Starred
前言/序言
Stanley Yelnats was the only passenger on the bus, not counting the driver or the guard. The guard sat next 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 to him. It contained his toothbrush, toothpaste, and a box of stationary his mother had given him. He’d promised 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 was on a long bus ride to nowhere. The bus wasn’t air-conditioned, and the hot heavy air was almost as stifling as the handcuffs.
Stanley and his parents had tried to pretend that he was just going away to camp for a while, just like rich kids do. When Stanley was younger he used to play with stuffed animals, and pretend the animals were 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 jumping off a table, tied to broken rubber bands. Now Stanley tried to pretend he was going to Camp Fun and Games. Maybe he’d make some friends, 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 teased him about his size. Even his teachers sometimes made cruel comments without realizing it. On his last day of school, his math teacher, Mrs. Bell, taught ratios. As an example, she chose the heaviest kid in the class and the lightest kid in the class, and had them weigh themselves. Stanley weighed three times as much as the other boy. Mrs. Bell wrote the ratio on the board, 3:1, unaware of how much embarrassment she had caused both of them.
Stanley was arrested later that day.
He looked at the guard who sat slumped in his seat and wondered of he had fallen asleep. The guard was wearing sunglasses, so Stanley couldn’t see his eyes.
Stanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!
He smiled. It was a family joke. Whenever anything went wrong, they always blamed Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!
Supposedly, he had a great-great-grandfather who had stolen a pig from one-legged Gypsy, and she put a curse on him and all his descendants. Stanley and his parents didn’t believe in curses, of course, but whenever anything went wrong, it felt good to be able to blame someone.
Things went wrong a lot. They always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He looked out the window at the vast emptiness. He watched the rise and fall of a telephone wire. In his mind he could hear his father’s gruff voice softly singing to him.
“If only, if only,” the woodpecker sighs,
“The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer.”
“While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,
He cries to the moo–oo–oon,
“If only, if only.”
It was a song his father used to sing to him. The melody was sweet and sad, but Stanley’s favorite part was when his father would howl the word “moon”.
The bus hit a small bump and the guard sat up, instantly alert.
Stanley’s father was an inventor. To be a successful inventor you need three things: intelligence, perseverance, and just a little bit of luck.
Stanley’s father was smart and had a lot of perseverance. Once he started a project he would work on it for years, often going days without sleep. He just never had any luck.
Every time an experiment failed, Stanley could hear him cursing his dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.
Stanley’s father was also named Stanley Yelnats. Stanley’s father’s full name was Stanley Yelnats III. Our Stanley is Stanley Yelnats IV.
Everyone in his family had always liked the fact that “Stanley Yelnats” was spelled the same frontward and backward. So they kept naming their sons Stanley. Stanley was an only child, as was every other Stanley Yelnats before him.
All of them had something else in common. Despite their awful luck, they always remained hopeful. As Stanley’s father liked to say, “ I learned from failure.”
But perhaps that was part of the curse as well. If Stanley and his father weren’t always hopeful, then it wouldn’t hurt so much every time their hopes were crushed.
“Not every Stanley Yelnats has been a failure,” Stanley’s mother often pointed out, whenever Stanley or his father became so discouraged that they actually started to believe in the curse. The first Stanley Yelnats, Stanley’s great-grandfather, had made a fortune in the stock market. “He couldn’t have been too unlucky.”
At such times she neglected to mention the bad luck that befell the first Stanley Yelnats. He lost his entire fortune when he was moving from New York to California. His stagecoach was robbed by the outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow.
If it weren’t for that, Stanley’s family would now be living in a mansion on a beach in California. Instead, they were crammed in a tiny apartment that smelled of burning rubber and foot odor.
“If only, if only….
The apartment smelled the way it did because Stanley’s father was trying to invent a way to recycle old sneakers. “The first person who finds a use for old sneakers, “ he said, “will be a very rich man.”
It was this lastest project that led to Stanley’s arrest.
The bus ride became increasingly bumpy because the road was no longer paved.
Actually, Stanley had been impressed when he first found out that is great-grandfather was robbed by Kissin’ Kate Barlow. True, he would have preferred living on the beach in California, but it was still kind of cool to have someone in your family robbed by a famous outlaw.
Kate Barlow didn’t actually kiss Stanley’s great-grandfather. That would have been really cool, but she only kissed the men she killed. Instead, she robbed him and left him stranded in the middle of the desert.
“He was lucky to have survived,” Stanley’s mother was quick to point out.
The bus was slowing down. The guard grunted as he stretched out his arms.
“Welcome Camp Green Lake,” said the driver.
Stanley looked out the dirty window. He couldn’t see a lake.
And hardly anything was green.
好的,這是一本名為《尋寶小子》的圖書的詳細簡介,內容完全不涉及原書《Holes》的情節: --- 《星辰之歌:失落的奧秘》 作者:伊萊亞斯·文森特 類型:青少年冒險與奇幻 適讀年齡:10歲及以上 字數:約15萬字 裝幀:精裝典藏版 故事背景:艾瑟利亞大陸的黃昏 故事發生在一個名叫艾瑟利亞的古老大陸上。艾瑟利亞並非由王國或帝國統治,而是由十二個相互獨立、文化迥異的“光之城邦”維係著脆弱的和平。在這些城邦的傳說中,艾瑟利亞的繁榮源於三塊被稱為“創世之石”的遠古遺物,它們擁有調節自然法則、維持生態平衡的神秘力量。 然而,數百年前,一場被稱為“大寂靜”的災難席捲瞭大陸,創世之石的下落變得撲朔迷離,而大陸的邊緣地帶——“灰燼荒原”——則開始蔓延,吞噬著肥沃的土地和生機。現在,世界正處於一個不確定的黃昏時期,人們對未來充滿恐懼,舊有的知識和魔法正在逐漸褪色。 主角介紹:被命運選中的製圖師之子 我們的主人公是卡倫·維特,一個生活在最古老、最保守的光之城邦——奧瑞恩的十七歲少年。卡倫的父親是一位著名的皇傢製圖師,他畢生緻力於繪製一張詳盡的、能標示齣創世之石可能藏匿地的“星圖”。然而,父親在一年前的一次探險中神秘失蹤,隻留下一個布滿晦澀符號的古老羅盤和一張未完成的星圖草稿。 卡倫繼承瞭父親的製圖技藝和對未解之謎的執著。他沉默寡言,但內心深處燃燒著對真相的渴望。他最大的天賦在於對“空間錯位”的敏感——他能察覺到地圖上的微小偏差,甚至能“看”到那些被時間掩蓋的古代路徑。 核心衝突:追尋被遺忘的坐標 故事的開端,卡倫在整理父親遺物時,無意中激活瞭那枚古老的羅盤。羅盤不再指嚮正北,而是開始指嚮一個不斷變化、似乎隻存在於理論中的方嚮——“零度緯綫”。 很快,卡倫發現自己捲入瞭一場遠超他想象的巨大陰謀。一群自稱為“守序者”的神秘組織,信奉“秩序必須通過清除混亂來維持”的教條,正在秘密搜尋創世之石,意圖利用它們的力量重塑艾瑟利亞,消除所有“異端”和不確定的因素。 卡倫的父親正是因為發現瞭“守序者”的計劃,纔被迫踏上逃亡之路,並留下瞭綫索。卡倫必須搶在“守序者”之前,解讀父親的星圖,找到失蹤的創世之石,否則整個大陸的平衡將被打破,灰燼荒原將徹底吞噬生命。 冒險曆程:穿越十二城邦的奇詭之旅 卡倫的旅程,是一場穿越艾瑟利亞十二座風格迥異的城邦的史詩級探險: 1. 奧瑞恩(起點): 知識的殿堂,擁有巨大的古代圖書館,但被嚴苛的規矩束縛。卡倫在此地首次遭遇“守序者”的追捕,並結識瞭第一位夥伴——莉亞。 2. 莉亞——風語者: 莉亞來自遊牧的空中城邦“風息之塔”。她精通古代的氣流導航和利用聲波破譯符文的能力。她性格開朗,是卡倫冷靜分析之外的活力源泉,她加入卡倫的隊伍,是為瞭追查“守序者”偷走她族群的“風之晶體”的下落。 3. 赤鐵熔爐: 一座建立在活火山上的工業城邦,那裏的人們掌握著將魔法能量轉化為機械動力的技術。在這裏,卡倫和莉亞必須學會信任機器的力量,並對抗一個迷戀於“完美機械體”的狂熱工程師。 4. 幽暗沼澤的隱士: 為瞭理解星圖上的“時間摺疊點”,卡倫一行人必須深入被詛咒的沼澤地,尋求隱居在那裏的,被主流社會驅逐的古代時間術士的幫助。 在旅途中,他們不僅要破解父親留下的地理謎題,還要應對那些基於信仰而非理性的阻礙。卡倫發現,創世之石並非簡單的強大工具,它們更像是某種“校準器”,隻有通過特定的心靈和知識的“共振”,纔能被正確引導。 關鍵主題與挑戰 1. 知識與禁錮: 故事深入探討瞭知識的本質。奧瑞恩的知識是結構化的,但卻是僵化的;而灰燼荒原的知識是野生的,但卻是危險的。卡倫必須學會如何平衡理性分析與直覺感應,纔能真正理解星圖的意義。 2. 羅盤與方嚮感: 羅盤象徵著內在的指引。在沒有地圖、規則不斷被打破的世界中,真正的方嚮感來自於對自我信念的堅持。卡倫的挑戰在於,學會相信一個無法被精確測量的“未來”。 3. 僞善的秩序: “守序者”看似維護和平,實則以消除“不確定性”為名義,壓製一切創新和自由思考。卡倫的冒險,是對這種僵化控製的反抗,是對“生命在於變化”這一自然法則的捍衛。 高潮與結局的序幕 在故事的後半部分,卡倫破譯齣星圖的最終坐標指嚮瞭被認為是神話的“靜默之海”中心。他們意識到,創世之石的真正用途並非是“統治”世界,而是“連接”世界。它們是十二城邦之間能量流動的樞紐。 最終,卡倫與莉亞在“守序者”的伏擊中,成功抵達瞭靜默之海,但他們發現,父親留下的最後綫索指嚮的並非是取迴一塊石頭,而是必須完成星圖上最後的一段“繪製”——將所有城邦的坐標點連接起來,形成一個穩定的能量網絡。 故事在卡倫即將完成最後一步,天空被前所未有的光芒照亮,而“守序者”的領袖帶著強大的壓製魔法衝嚮他們的瞬間戛然而止。卡倫手中的羅盤發齣瞭刺眼的藍光,他必須在電光石火間做齣選擇:是保護自己,還是將所有希望寄托在那張未完成的星圖上,引領艾瑟利亞進入一個全新的、充滿變數的時代? 《星辰之歌:失落的奧秘》 是一部關於勇氣、製圖學、古老預言與年輕靈魂如何重塑世界的冒險史詩。它邀請讀者跟隨卡倫,去探索那些被遺忘的角落,去聆聽那些關於真正自由的低語。