Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Great Doughnut Parade by Rebecca Bond

The Great Doughnut Parade by Rebecca Bond

Rating: 4 stars

Here's the skinny on this beautifully illustrated book: Little Billy ties a string around a doughnut, and then ties the string around himself.  This little doughnut quickly attracts the attention of a cat, then a dog, then a girl, and then...  Soon the entire town is following Billy and his doughnut.  By the end of the book the parade erupts into joyous dance, though no one is quite sure why they are there.  While everyone dances around, Billy slips off to eat the "crisp and delicious fried ring--the doughnut he'd tied to his belt with a string."

It's a cute book, though I know of some people who'd turn the parade into a riot when doughnuts weren't equitably distributed to the followers.  (These people are actually pint-sized--namely, my twin nieces and nephew.)  The pictures are beautiful, full of people swirling around with bright smiles on their faces.

But really, this blog is just an excuse to tell you how cool my dad is.

Over the weekend, we went to brunch with my dad and step-mother, known as The GRAND-Dad and Grandma Sharon to my kids.  He handed Lorelei and Ben this book, and said, "Now make sure you call me when you get to the end!"  They were too excited to tell him about their brand new lunchboxes to read, so I put the book next to my bag.

...and GRAND-Dad was eating and dreaming too
wanting to have a doughnut with each of you!
We got home, I forgot to take the book out of the car, and it was soon part of the pile of crap that had accumulated during the week.  Oops.  But when I did manage to pull it out from my un-immaculate vehicle, it  soon found its way to Lorelei's eager lap.  She sat there reading it, and as soon as she was done, she snapped it shut and said: "I need to call GRAND-Dad!"  So we did.

Later, I looked through the book myself.  Billy escapes to his solitary doughnut delight on the last page, but my dad had added another page, with another rhyming passage:

"...and GRAND-Dad was eating and dreaming too / wanting to have a doughnut with each of you!"

And he taped in a picture of himself, smiling big, about to bite into a glazed doughnut.

What I love so much is that my dad, an often-serious retired Army general, was playing with his grandkids through books.  He, the consummate booklover himself, a guy who consumes 3 or 4 books a week, a guy who can tell you the page number of certain quotations from a few thick books, a guy who showed me by example how to escape into the pages of a book...  He was speaking my kids' language, especially Lorelei's language, sharing a joke in the pages of another soon-to-become beloved book.

This is yet another way to have fun with books, to not make reading a chore but instead a light-hearted way to share and communicate and love.

Or maybe it was just an excuse for my dad, a big doughnut-lover, to have a few more doughnuts.  My kids' arms don't have to be twisted much.

2 comments:

  1. Nice touch by your dad. :)

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  2. I love it! Way to go, the Dad (now THE granddad)! A great man in many respects, but mostly so because of his love of family.

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