Vooks - Donuts the Hole Story
About This Story
The book opens on a donut shop at closing time. The lights go down. The case empties out. The reader is told that donuts do not move when people are watching. Once the shop is closed, they wake up. Every donut in the case — glazed, sprinkled, iced, maple bar, powdered, jelly-filled, the one with the crooked hole — comes to life. Some of them have jobs. There are donut cops in a donut car, donut pirates (of course), maple bar lumberjacks, and a coffee jacuzzi that the donuts relax in after a long shift of being looked at through glass. The world is built from real photographs of donuts with cartoon faces added on top, which is the visual joke that anchors the whole read aloud. Kids recognize the donuts. Grown-ups recognize the donuts. The faces make them all characters at once.
The plot is small and silly. Someone has stolen the golden sprinkles. The donut cops have to chase down the burglar in their donut car. They drive through the streets of the donut shop after hours — past the display case, past the coffee bar, past a suspiciously quiet stack of napkins — until they catch the burglar and retrieve the sprinkles. The story rhymes end to end, which gives the read aloud a quick, chantable rhythm. The pace is fast, the punchlines land every page or two, and the whole book takes under five minutes to read aloud. It is the kind of read aloud that a tired parent can get through without losing the thread, and the kind of book a kid will ask to hear again the same night.
The real ending is on the last page. After all the chaos, after the heist is solved and the sprinkles are back where they belong, the donuts realize something. The shop is going to open in the morning. People are going to come in. People are going to want a donut. The donuts hatch an escape plan. The book ends with the donuts running for the door. It is funny, and it is also the kind of read aloud that lets a kid ask a small question about what it means to be careful about who you trust.
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What Happens in the Story
The story takes place entirely inside one bakery, after the doors have closed for the night. The first spread sets the scene — the lights go down, the case is empty, and the donuts are awake. The text establishes the rule: donuts do not move when people are watching. Once the shop is closed, they come to life. The next several spreads introduce the cast. There are glazed donuts, sprinkled donuts, maple bars, jelly-filled donuts, and the one with the crooked hole. The crooked hole becomes a quiet recurring character across the read aloud — every time the camera comes back to him, he is in a slightly different corner of the case, watching the action.
The middle of the book is the heist. Someone has stolen the golden sprinkles from the top shelf. The donut cops climb into a glazed donut cruiser and pull out of the. They drive past the coffee machine (which is, of course, the coffee jacuzzi when nobody is watching), past the napkin stack, past a quiet corner where a maple bar is doing lumberjack things with a toothpick. The chase is short and punchy. The rhymes carry it. By the third or fourth page of the chase, kids are reading along.
The donut cops catch the burglar. The sprinkles are returned to the top shelf. Everything goes back to normal for about half a page. Then the donuts realize — the shop opens in the morning. People are going to come in. People are going to want a donut. The donuts hatch an escape plan. The book ends with a single image of the donuts running for the door, and the last line of the story: “Do not get eaten in the morning.”
Why It Works for Family Read Aloud
The first thing parents notice is that the read aloud is fast. There is no slow build. There is no character introduction page. The book opens with the lights going down and the case waking up, and it does not slow down. The text rhymes end to end, which gives the read aloud a chantable rhythm. A tired parent can read this book without losing the thread, which is a real selling point for last-book-of-the-night reading.
The second thing parents notice is that the jokes land for the whole room. The visual joke — donuts with cartoon expressions added to real photographs — is the kind of weird that preschoolers find funny the first time they see it, and that adults find funny the second time they see it. There are donut cops, donut pirates, donut lumberjacks, and a coffee jacuzzi. The puns on every page are mostly for adults. Kids catch the rhyme. That double layer is the reason the read aloud works in a family setting where the parent is also listening.
The third thing worth pointing out is the ending. The donuts hatch an escape plan. The book does not explain why. It does not need to. The escape plan is funny on its own, and it leaves a small question in the air that kids tend to ask about for days after the read aloud. What did the donuts do when they got outside? Did they go to another bakery? Did they become a different kind of food? Those questions are the read aloud’s small contribution to a preschooler’s imagination, and they are the kind of question that turns a one-time pick into a household favorite.
Who This Book Is For
This read aloud is built for the preschool and early kindergarten crowd — kids who are old enough to follow a quick plot but young enough to find a donut with a face genuinely funny. It is also a good fit for any child who likes food, who likes rhyme, or who has started to ask questions about how the world works after the grown-ups go to bed. The text is short enough for sensitive kids, and the visual jokes are accessible to kids who are still building reading confidence.
It is also a good pick for families who have already enjoyed the Vooks animated read aloud library and want to add a fast, funny standalone to the rotation. The donut case is a world kids have already imagined playing in, and the read aloud turns that imagination into a five-minute story. If you have a child who can sit through a fast read aloud and who is starting to enjoy rhyme, this is a good first-or-tenth Vooks pick.
Want to see what other funny picture books we have on the shelf? Browse the full list at ourreadingcircle.com/category/fun-imaginative-tales for more read aloud ideas, or ourreadingcircle.com/category/vooks for the rest of our Vooks animated collection.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Donuts the Hole Story about?
It is a rhyming picture book read aloud that imagines what the donuts in a bakery case do after the shop closes for the night. The donuts wake up, the cops chase a sprinkles thief, and then the donuts hatch an escape plan so they do not get eaten in the morning.
Who wrote Donuts the Hole Story?
It was written by David W. Miles, the author of a long list of picture books and novelty board books for kids. It was published by ABRAMS in May 2018.
What age is Donuts the Hole Story for?
It works best for preschool through early first grade, which we read as 3 to 5 years. ABRAMS catalogs the book for ages 6 and up, but the rhyme, the visual jokes, and the fast pace make the early end of that range the most natural fit for read aloud.
Is Donuts the Hole Story good for read aloud?
Yes. The text rhymes end to end, the pages turn fast, and the visual jokes land for the whole room. It is one of the easier five-minute read alouds in the Vooks library, which makes it a good last-book-of-the-night pick for tired parents.
What are the illustrations in Donuts the Hole Story like?
The illustrations are built from real photographs of donuts with cartoon faces and accessories added on top. The donuts look like real donuts, but they have eyes, mouths, arms, and small props like police hats and pirate swords. That mixed-media look is what makes the read aloud visually distinct.
Does Donuts the Hole Story have a sequel?
Not directly. Donuts: The Hole Story is a standalone picture book, but David W. Miles has written several other board books and novelty titles in the same visual style. They tend to live in the same shelf at the library and bookstore.
Where can I find more read alouds like this?
We keep a full category of funny read alouds at ourreadingcircle.com — start with the fun & imaginative tales page for more read aloud ideas, or browse all Vooks animated read alouds for the full animated library.
