Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature - Scarecrow Press

Names for Fun 15
book when Zero runs away and his bed is immediately given to a newcomer.
The boy is called Twitch because whenever he walks by a goodlooking
car his fingers start twitching at the challenge of seeing if he
can steal it. When Stanley hears someone call out to “Caveman,” he
looks around to see who else has come into the tent, and then in surprise
realizes that this is his new name. Back at school where he was
picked on by the bully Derrick Dunne, whose given name is the same
as the surname of the famous English executioner who devised derricks
from which to hang people, Stanley had felt large and awkward, so now
he kind of likes the “macho” sound of his new name.
The two most important names in the story are those of Stanley Yelnats
and Hector Zeroni. In the end, readers discover that Zero is a descendant
of the original Madame Zeroni. He is the closest to a friend
that Stanley has at Camp Green Lake. Stanley had been teaching Zero
to read and Zero had been helping Stanley dig his holes. When Zero
gets so tired of being picked on that he runs away, Stanley decides to go
after him. He finds Zero hiding in the remains of a wrecked boat, very
sick from eating and drinking the only thing that was available:
brandied peaches (called Sploosh) prepared 110 years ago by Kissin’
Kate and given to Onion Sam as a love gift. Stanley helps the very
weak Zero to come with him in search of the Thumb of God, an unusual
geographical outcropping that Stanley’s great-great-grandfather
talked about as having saved his life because of being home to a natural
spring, even though it is on top of a mountain across the desert from
what is now Camp Green Lake. Stanley and Zero have a challenging
journey, but they succeed in making it to the Thumb of God, where
they find both water to drink and onions to eat. Once their strength is
restored they secretly climb back to Camp Green Lake to dig one more
hole near where Stanley had found a lipstick tube engraved with the
initials K. B. And sure enough in the middle of the night, they find a
suitcase with a name on the outside, which Zero recognizes as Stanley,
spelled backwards. It is the long lost treasure hidden by Kissin’ Kate after
she stole it from Stanley’s Great-Great-Grandfather Yelnats.
When daylight comes, the warden, Mr. Pendanski, and Mr. Sir
gather around the hole but are afraid to touch Stanley and Zero because
of the dreaded yellow-spotted lizards. The lizards don’t bite Stanley or
Zero because they are repelled by the smell and the taste of onions, and