Review #49: Who Needs Donuts?

Dad:  So, what is this thing we hold in our hands?
Gracie (age 9):  "Who Needs Donuts"!
Lily (age 6):  I need donuts.
Dad:  It's like no other book I have ever seen.
Isaac (age 11):  This is, like, the best book ever.
Dad:  How would you describe it?
Gracie:  Crazy!
Isaac:  There are millions and millions and millions of things on every page.  If you could zoom in very closely you would see millions and millions of little people, and weird animals, and all kinds of stuff.  Like giraffes, two headed dogs, and half-horse-half-pigeons.
Gracie:  Is that a duck-dog?
Lily:  That's a duck-horse.
Gracie:  There's a tree in his pipe.  Who keeps donuts under their hat?  Who drives a car with their feet?
Dad:  Apparently those guys.
Gracie:  She's got shoes on her glasses.
Isaac:  This is so good.
Gracie:  There's a three-tailed dog with running shoes.
Isaac:  That guy is giving birds sardines.
Dad:  Birds?
Gracie:  They are horse-elephant-birds!
Isaac:  I see a guy with a horse head.
Gracie:  There's an elephant coming out of that guy's ear!  And it's loving this flying elephant.
Lily:  It's crazy!  There are lots and lots and thousand and thousands of details.
Isaac:  You could look at each page for three million days.
Gracie:  She's got a city in her grocery bag!  And there's a rhino driving that car!
Dad:  Crazy, crazy, crazy.  We'll never finish this review if we just keep listing all the details in the pictures.
Isaac:  I knew this was going to be a two-hour review.
Dad:  It's called "Who Needs Donuts?"  What about donuts?
Lily:  There are a lot of donuts.  Donuts, donuts.  Donuts, donuts.
Gracie:  This book is a crazy donut sensation.
Lily:  This is the story of Sam.  He wanted one thousand forty two million donuts.
Gracie:  So the boy named Sam goes to the big city to look for donuts, and he meets Mr. Bikferd who collects donuts for a hobby.
Isaac: Mr. Bikferd loves donuts just like Sam does.  They go hunting and find donuts together.
Dad:  Where does a person find donuts in the big city?
Lily:  He found them under people's hats.
Isaac:  They go to Mr. Bikferd's house...
Lily:  His storage place.
Isaac: ...and there are millions and trillions and zillion-gillion-fillions and billions and dillions of donuts.  And one giraffe.
Gracie:  Sam is happy.  Sam is freaking out.
Isaac:  And his eyes just look like donut holes.
Gracie:  All those donuts would be fun to play hide and seek in!  I would start eating and building forts out of donuts.
Isaac:  I would dive into the donuts and swim to the bottom.
Gracie:  Then an old lady comes up and is like, "Who needs donuts?  That's right.  Who needs donuts when you've got love?"
Isaac:  Sam thought they'd be happy forever.  Until their donut wagon broke down.  They had to find a phone so they could call the wagon repairman.  There's this person named Pretzel Annie, and she had a direct line to the repairman.  Literally.  There's just this big rope... this long line with telephones on it that goes to the repairman.
Gracie:  Mr. Bikferd and Pretzel Annie fell in love at first sight.
Lily:  He found love.
Gracie:  Love was more important than donuts.
Isaac:  Mr. Bikferd got married and opened a pretzel shop with Pretzel Annie.  They'll definitely have enough food for the wedding.  They'll never run out.
Gracie:  Yeah.  They'll just eat pretzels and donuts for the wedding.  They could make a donut cake.
Isaac:  Pretzels and donuts.  That would be awesome!
Gracie:  Sam wasn't happy because Mr. Bikferd was gone.
Isaac:  Mr. Bikferd gave all the donuts to Sam.  But Sam doesn't want to hunt donuts anymore because he doesn't have his friend.  Friendship was more important than the donuts.
Gracie:  Then the old lady from before goes to her house in the basement of a coffee factory.  And a bull from the pet shop... who would be selling a bull as a pet anyway???  A wild bull from the pet shop came and punched into the giant coffee tank.
Isaac:  And coffee pours into the basement of this old lady.
Lily:  And she started sinking, and she didn't know how to swim!  And the little boy didn't know how to swim.  But then he tossed the donuts in there and the coffee sucked into the donuts.  And then she was safe.
Gracie:  Then Sam's like, "I'm going home."  Because people are more important than donuts.
Lily:  Kids and grownups and people are all more important than donuts.
Dad:  Now, what kind of person do you think would be able to make a book like this.
Gracie:  He would have to be very imaginative and not get frustrated easy.  It would take a week to draw one little corner of the book.
Isaac:  If I tried to draw this I would explode after the first three hours of working.
Gracie:  Aghh!  But we do have to draw a picture like this!  For the review!
Isaac:  Oh no.  This will be my last Bookie Woogie.  Because I'm going to explode!
Lily:  I know why this book is just black and white.  It would take hours and hours to color it!
Gracie:  Oh, imagine!
Isaac:  It would take me three days and nights to just draw two pages!  Just two!  Who is this guy anyway?
Dad:  Mark Alan Stamaty.  Do you wish Mr. Stamaty would make another book like this one?  Or do we want to give him a break after this?
Isaac:  A break and THEN another book.
Dad:  Actually, this book came out in 1973.  That's before I was born.
Gracie:  That means he's dead!!!
Dad:  No, I don't thinks so.  He's still around.
Isaac:  Can he make another book like this?
Dad:  Maybe he's been working on one since 1973.
Isaac:  Oh for the love.
Dad:  I could imagine this book taking 36 years to make.
Isaac:  That's more than triple how old I am.
Dad:  Is there anything you want to say to Mr. Stamaty?
Isaac:  Good job on this book.
Gracie:  We all really think you should make more books like it.  We really like this one.
Isaac:  Unless you're still sick of making this book and you need a longer break.
Dad:  He probably did need all this time to recover.
Gracie:  People can learn stuff from this story.  You cannot love donuts more than your friends and family.
Dad:  Well, not just donuts...
Gracie:  Don't love "things" more than people.
Lily:  Once, by accident, I loved ducks more than people.
Dad:  Do you still?
Lily:  Nope.
Dad:  So you stopped collecting ducks and started collecting people?
Lily:  No!  I still collect ducks.
Dad:  But you also collect people now?
Lily:  No.  I love people.
Dad:  You collect ducks, but you love people.
Lily:  Yes!
Dad:  Ahhhhh, it's all coming clear now...
Gracie:  I think people will love this book.
Dad:  What's one word to describe it?
Isaac:  Can I do two?  "Very doodle-y."
Lily:  It's a really good book.  I don't know why.  If people read it, they'll find out why.
Gracie:  If you are addicted to donuts, you will probably explode with joy.

Lily and a donut pile, by Lily

Sam feeding some creatures, by Gracie

reception for the Bikferd wedding, by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Mark Alan Stamaty
Published: 1973 Dial Press, 2001 Knopf
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