Reviews: (by author)

Stauffacher, Sue. Donuthead. New York: Knopf, 2003. $15.95. ISBN 0-375-82468-5. 144 pp.

Franklin Delano Donuthead is a sensitive, asymmetrical eleven-year old with a passion for statistics. He incessantly computes the probabilities of anything and everything that could go wrong at any given time, increasing his chances of living a long life. As he puts it, “If I didn’t know there was an astonishingly high probability that I would live through each day…I would not get out of bed in the morning” (3). Franklin has never met his father, and his mother misunderstands him completely. When he meets Sarah Kervick, a regular breeding ground for disease and bacteria, he finds he has no choice but to comply with her demands under penalty of a “ground-floor punch.” Sarah just started at Pelican View elementary, and she doesn’t take crap from anybody. She finds that Donuthead is useful to her purposes, and as soon as she meets Donuthead’s compassionate mother, he can’t get rid of her. Sarah has a long way to go to become the normal little girl she dreams of, and with Franklin’s mother’s help, she begins to transform from a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.

Sue Stauffacher does an excellent job of assuming the personality of an unduly stressed eleven-year old. She manages to make the book believable enough to allow the reader to sympathize with Franklin’s concerns, while leaving room to laugh at the absurdity of his thought processes. Franklin’s concerns are a platform for laughter for the whole book, “I have mentioned to my mother that coming from a single-parent home puts me at a disproportionately high risk for all sorts of life-threatening behaviors, like alcohol and drug abuse, depression and anger management issues, and being abducted by kidnappers on the rare evening she has to work late” (6). Sarah Kervick’s bullying attitude provides a welcome contrast to Franklin, and as their personalities collide and finally mesh towards the end of the story, the reader is drawn closer to the characters. The story is one of heartwarming compassion recommended for adolescents to adult readers.

Recommended
Scott Bolinger, September 2004

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