Reviews

Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller

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readingthroughtheages's review against another edition

5.0

Kids are going to love the humor in this book! I was not prepared to laugh out loud, but I did! Keller does a great job giving a doughnut, a voice! We meet Arnie, get close to Arnie, just in time to laugh, because unbeknownst to him, he's about to get eaten. What? Doughnuts get eaten?? My favorite line is, "Well, that explains why my friends never write or call - they've probably all been EATEN!" Hilarious book with a happy ending!

cetaylor05's review against another edition

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4.0

Arnie the Doughnut is a wondrous shaggy-dog story in which the title character comes to understand that “that’s what doughnuts are for—to eat” only after he’s been purchased. Discovering that his creator and his fellow doughnuts are not only aware of this atrocity but are also cheerful, willing participants, Arnie resigns himself to this ultimate fate. However, Arnie’s purchaser Mr. Bing is no longer comfortable with this prospect but does not want to be wasteful. In an ironic twist, man and doughnut make their way to a joyous cohabitation that enriches both of their lives. Keller masterfully blends acrylic paints, collage, and metafictive elements to create hilarious characters with whom audiences of all ages will connect and find themselves emotionally vested in their futures. The myriad of value-added features ranging from puns, labeling the setting, diagrams of the protagonists’ emotional state, and double-page spreads with a full bleed that are mimetic of Animé chase scenes with their jarring surreal images in the periphery are almost overwhelming as they hasten the pace of the plot and create a raucous, claustrophobic mood which is only broken by the montage in which Arnie is nearly eaten. Although children will howl at the sheer silliness of the book’s self-awareness, high school students can appreciate Keller’s tale as an accessible introduction to irony.

panda_incognito's review against another edition

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3.0

This book is completely ridiculous, but I thought it was fun, and I enjoyed the many amusing and witty asides. I wouldn't want to read this aloud to kids, since there are far too many asides to easily follow without disrupting the flow of the text, but this is fun for an independent read.