Book Eleven

Donuthead
Sue Stauffacher

I. Loved. This. Book. Really.


Donuthead should be required reading for every fourth or fifth grader. And every adult. It deals with bullying and fighting for yourself and fighting for other people and dreams and hope and looking past appearance to help someone else and be changed in the process. Franklin Delano Donuthead is a boy caught in fear. Stauffacher deals with Franklin's "handicap," which could have become tedious or annoying, in a way that keeps the reader laughing at the absurdity. It also made me think of people I know (sometimes even myself) and how our fears keep us from fully engaging.

When Franklin meets Sarah Kervick, everything changes. His eyes are opened to the "messy" side of life, which isn't just physical. It's emotional. It's love. It's hope--in dreams and in the kindness of others. And it's funny and sentimental and beautiful.

Because it's a young adult/children's novel, it only took me a couple of hours to read. They were some of the most enjoyable hours I've spent reading lately. Now I can't wait to head out to my local bookstore to buy my own copy--one I'll share with friends and with my own children as they grow. And one I'm sure to read over and over, just to be sure I've got it.


Notable Quotes:

I discovered that there is a factor that is more important to your health than what you eat or how much alochol you drink . . .That one thing is hard to describe statistically.  It's love, if you can believe that.  The love of friends, of spouses, of neighbors, of teachers, of mothers who pester you to play ball with them, of dreamy little fourth graders who live next door and let their dogs wander the streets.  (p46)

"So we see at this day, whatever evils are abroad, hope never entirely leaves us;  and while we have that, no amount of other ills can make us completely wretched."  (Franklin, reading from the myth of Pandora  - p94)

Hold fast to your dream, Sarah.  Wrap it, as Langston Hughes says, "in a blue-cloud cloth away from the too-rough fingers of the world." And surround yourself with people who believe in that dream for you.  And you will achieve it.  (p131)