Arnie, the Doughnut »

Laurie Keller is the author and illustrator of Open Wide: Tooth School Inside, a Nick Jr. Best Book of the Year, and The Scrambled States of America, which was named an IRA-CBC Children’s Choice, a Bank Street College of Education Best Book for Children, an ABA “Pick of the Lists,” and a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year. Laurie lives in Muskegon, Michigan.

A deliciously imaginative story about friendship—from the author / illustrator of The Scrambled States of America.

Arnie was fascinated as he watched the customers stream into the bakery. One by one, doughnuts were chosen, placed in paper bags, and whisked away with their new owners. Some went by the dozen in giant boxes.

“Good-bye!” Arnie yelled to each doughnut. “Have a good trip!”

“This is so exciting!” Arnie beamed. “I wonder who will choose ME?”

At first glance, Arnie looks like an average doughnut—round, cakey, with a hole in the middle, iced and sprinkled. He was made by one of the best bakeries in town, and admittedly his sprinkles are candy-colored. Still, a doughnut is just a doughnut, right?

WRONG! Not if Arnie has anything to say about it. And, for a doughnut, he sure seems to have an awful lot to say. Can Arnie change the fate of all doughnuts—or at least have a hand in his own future? Well, you’ll just have to read this funny story and find out for yourself.

The New York Times

Keller has composed a variation on a theme of Charlotte's Web. Only -- here's the goofball genius part -- she has compressed all that book's charm into one-fourth the space with three times the laughs (giggles mostly, but also snorts and snarfs), using as a main character not a pig named Wilbur but a doughnut named Arnie. A chocolate-covered doughnut with sprinkles, infectious optimism, a wide emotional range, surprising resourcefulness and a handy facility with a cordless phone. — Lawrence Downes