Part 1: Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 Summary

Camp Green Lake is described and it's anything but what its name suggests. There's no water, no green, and it's filled with rattlesnakes, scorpions, and the dreaded, deadly, yellow-spotted lizards. Stanley Yelnats, whose name is spelled the same forwards as it is backwards, arrives by bus to this camp for boys who've committed a crime, only he is truly innocent. Unfortunately, his family is just too poor to defend him. Stanley's family is used to the bad luck which follows them, due to the curse his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" caused. Stanley, however, tries to have a good attitude and pretend that this will be like a summer camp for rich kids.

Stanley's father is an inventor looking for ways to recycle old tennis shoes and Stanley comforts himself by remembering the song his father used to sing to him, "If only...