The Doughnut Fix

“I’d never met a “why not?” person before. In the city, there’s generally more of a “why should I?” kind of vibe.”

Everything is fine in Tristan's life.  He lives in an amazing city.  He has a great best friend.  Things are awesome.  Then his parents pack him and his sisters up and move to Petersville, a tiny mountain town with one street and a super old house that they are now the proud owners of.  Tris's awesome life has taken a turn for the worse.  It isn't until his dad suggests he come up with a project to fill his free time that Tris learns to love the quaint little town.  With the help of his new friend, Josh, Tris is on a mission to bring Winnie's famous chocolate cream doughnut's back to Petersville.  

The Doughnut Fix by Jessie Janowitz is one of the 2019-2020 nominees for the Nebraska Golden Sower Award.  My 11-year-old son and I have been diligently working our way through the list together since September and this makes book number seven that we've read.

The Doughnut Fix is a cute, funny story about a young boy trying to open a doughnut stand.  It explores some of the hardships families face when uprooting and moving to a new town.  Tris has to accept that moving away means he has lost his best friend, but he also gets to discover that there are other awesome people out there.  

I can see why kids love this book.  It's written in a way that ideal for both genders and it lays out the very basic steps of starting your own business.  Most kids have dreamed of opening some kind of stand, and Tris and Josh do just that.  And they do it rather professionally.  Tris is a great narrator of the story with just the right amount of 12-year-old snark and annoyance for his sisters.  My son was often laughing.  And theres's a poop scene.  That alone was enough to win over a young boy.

Despite being such a cute book, I rolled my eyes throughout it, which made me feel like a crabby grown up scarred by the real world.  And maybe I am.

Neither one of the parents in this book have a job.  The dad is forced to leave his bank job and the mom leaves her catering gig and they up and move out into the mountains.  They have plans of the mom opening a restaurant, but by the end of the book it's been almost two months and they still haven't.  Real world me would like to know how they magically had money (and would also like to know if I can get in on this I-have-money-but-don't-work gig).  

I suppose they could have sold their apartment in the city for an outrageous amount and then bought a cheaper house.  But still.  I wasn't buying it.

The second cause of my eye rolling was the fact that the kids did not have to go to school.  They moved to Petersville in early November and the school people said, "Eh, just wait and come second semester!" I know it's every kid's dream to stay home from school, but once again real-world me and teacher me rolled her eyes.  

I know, I know...someone who loves fantasy and sci fi as much as me has no right to roll her eyes at a book that has the smallest little unrealistic factors.  But whatever.

The third eye roll came from the fact that there is a raccoon on the cover and cute little pictures of his tail in the beginning of the chapters and he's in the book for a whopping 15 seconds.  It's silly, but I found that to be a little disappointing.  

All in all it was a cute book and I enjoyed reading it with my son.  I gave it five stars on Goodreads because it was a fun middle grade read.  I'd be happy to read the second book, The Doughnut King, with him as well.  And I'll try to put my grown up  pessimism away.