Donut Give Up!

Board books can serve many purposes, with one of them being to expand a child’s vocabulary, and that’s the principal goal of Donut Give Up! in which parents provide supportive bits of advice to their children by means of a series of statements in which food-related puns and plays on words are imbedded. As the cover illustration reveals, Matte’s characters are anthropomorphic foods. Each pair of facing pages has Rossner’s brief text on one page and Matte’s full-page complementary illustration occupying the other. For example, the opening page text reads:

Remember, DONUT give up
when what you’re doing gets tough.

Matte’s illustration reveals a Timbits-like child on roller skates being supported by a blue icing-ed adult donut.

Other examples find Rossner employing concrete words but using them in a metaphorical sense.

You’re a tough little COOKIE.
Nothing stands in your way!

In Matte’s accompanying art, as a Band-Aid covered (chocolate chip?) cookie child makes its upside down way across a playground apparatus, an Oreo-like parent stands below, arms outstretched, ready to catch the child should it fall.

An adult reading Donut Give Up! to young children should be prepared to stop and provide explanations. For instance, when Matte writes,

You’re always getting BUTTER.
Way to go! You’re on a ROLL!

The adult reader needs to explain both “butter/ better” and the two meanings of being “on a roll” that are portrayed in Matte’s illustration that reveals a bicycle-riding bread roll child rolling down a hill while being followed by a running adult bread roll. A pat of melting butter can be seen on both anthropomorphic bread rolls.

Though the publisher recommends a birth to age three audience. Donut Give Up!’s contents will probably be much better appreciated by the upper end of that audience and even into kindergarten as using metaphorical language and making puns are not early language skills. Even if young children don’t get the word play, they will still be adding to their store of concrete language. As well, Matte’s illustrations provide a fun visual experience.