Holes by Louis Sachar (1998)
Stanley Yelnats is a young American teenager accused of stealing a famous baseball player's pair of sneakers.
Stanley comes from a family with a history of bad luck: his father is an inventor, still looking for the great idea that's going to make him rich, his great grand-father was robbed by the famous outlaw Kissin' Kate and his great great grand-father was cursed by an Egyptian woman for not taking her up a mountain.
Camp Green Lake, the juvenile correctional facility Stanley is sent to, is a dry and hot, run by the cruel Warden, Mr Sir and Mr Predanski. There is no fence at Camp Green Lake because the lack of water, rattlesnakes, scorpions and yellow-spotted lizards take care of runaways.
As we learn about life and work at the camp, how Stanley and the other campers have to dig holes in the dried up lake bed, other stories unfold, the Yelnats family legend, along with Kate Barlow's tragic love story.
Stanley gets stronger and stronger, building up self-confidence, writing letters to his mother, teaching Zero to read until he realises digging holes doesn't just help build the boys' characters but the Warden is looking for something.
When Zero runs away after a fight, and Stanley learns his records are going to be erased from the camp files, our hero feels he has to go and look for him.
The walk to the other side of the lake fills the reader with pain, fear, pity and awe at their determination not to go back although they may walk to their death.
Holes is a full-of-suspense, character-building, coming-of-age story, written from a smart teenager's point of view whose inner strength and determination will break the family curse and restore justice.