Donut Days

Donut Days had a lot going for it. Emma is your everyday girl with her own set of problems but has a great sense of humor to get her through them. I really appreciated Emma's struggle over her religion, I feel like I don't see that side of religion enough. Like Emma talks about in the book sometimes things are glossed right over and not really talked about in the church. And I really liked seeing her question her relationship with God. And the book is written in such a way that you don't need to be a Christian to understand Emma's struggles. Along with that I thought Emma's fight with her best friend seemed real and brings up a good question. What do you do when you don't agree with your friend's viewpoint but want to be there for them show more as a friend?

I thought the setting of a donut camp for the opening of a donut store was fabulous. And yes, those really do happen, a few years ago I remember a lot of news coverage for a similar opening! I did find it a bit odd that her parents would let her stay overnight in a tent alone with a bunch of strangers around though at the donut camp. The group of evangelical bikers she meets there were wonderful characters. I loved how their experiences helped Emma think about her own faith and her own future.

Besides Emma, I loved the character of Jake. A friend that wants to be more. I actually would have liked to have seen more of him. But what a nice guy, in the book he does something that most people would probably not even consider but he knows it's right and does it. And he's just one of the great cast of characters there supporting Emma including a lovely bear of a biker, a cute little sister and loving parents.

Overall a great story of faith, friends and donuts! show less

A book about donuts has to be fabulous or at the very least entertaining. Donut Days was both fabulous, entertaining, and hunger-inducing. Before I start my review, I would like to warn those of you who are on diets: Donut Days will be a very difficult book for you to read! You should just give up counting calories for a day and indulged in some mouth watering donuts. You better believe, that is exactly what I did!

Donuts aside, Donut Days is a very compelling and thought provoking book. With interwoven themes of religion and friendship Donut Days is so much more than a book about a girl who likes to eat donuts.

Some of my favorite things about Donut Days were how to issues of family and religion are handled. This is truly high praise show more coming from me. I’m the girl who did a poster project on evolution vs. intelligent design for her anthropology class. I’m not the least bit religious, but it is still an interesting topic that fascinates me. Emma has always been at odds with many of the people at her parents' church- including her own parents. Emma doesn’t dress up or act like any of the other girls and having faith is not something that comes naturally to her. I think that this is what made Emma such a believable character for me. Emma doesn’t take things at face value. Emma questions everything including the belief system that she was raised with.

Some of the other secondary characters were tougher for me to relate to. Especially Emma’s intelligent-design defending ex-best friend. There was one scene in the class room when, I wanted to leap into the book and smack her over the head with a biology textbook. Violent reactions aside, the story started to pick up for me when Emma meets a gang of born again bikers at the donut camp. I loved this group of people. They are the kind of people who actually do good things instead of just sitting around talking about it. Despite my non-religious status, I wanted to go riding around with them on their bikes. And… oh all the yummy donuts that were at the camp. I wish that there was a donut camp around here!

Donut Days wraps up nicely at the end. There is a love interest for Emma and a nice happy ending for a change. I didn’t find the ending to be entirely practicable either. In fact, I was actually quite surprised by one development. I don’t wan to give too much away, so go pick up a copy and find out for yourself!

I would recommend Donut Days to anyone who is interested in books dealing with religion,family, and friends. show less

Longer review found at my blog:
The Real World According To Sam

I was really surprised by Donut Days. At first I was terrified by the thought of having to read about what are known as "Crazy Christians." They are extreme, and a lot of times, they don't practice what they preach...fine example = Mr. O' Conner! But all silliness aside, this book was very enjoyable and I did learn a thing or two from Emma and her experiences, which is always good. I'm very glad I took the time to read this book. This is why it is important to give books a chance before just tossing them aside. You should definitely take the risk with Donut Days. ^_^

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I might, reading about the donut camp set up before the opening of the Crispy Dream shop. The drama between teenagers and between members of an Evangelical church was handled without demonizing one side or the other. Add a born again biker pack and some teenaged love and sleuthing and clean writing, and the result was a nice little book.

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Emma Goiner's father informs her one night that the only universities her college fund will help support are those that her parents approve of. In other words, any secular school is OUT.

Both of Emma's parents are pastors at Living Word Redeemer, so they expect Emma to be guided by their choices. But Emma knows they are disappointed in her. Since her baptism not so long ago, she's yet to speak in tongues. And she's inflamed that the church can be influenced by the wealthiest member of the congregation.

So it's with these thoughts in her mind that she's determined to win the Paul Bunyan Press contest.

The paper is holding a competition. Crispy Dream Donuts is opening a new store, and the paper is show more offering a college scholarship to the best story written about the opening. Emma isn't sure what angle she will take with her story, but she's going to camp out and interview people who are also camping there waiting for the celebration.

It's during her time at Donut Camp that Emma learns more about herself than she ever expected. She encounters a Harley group that turns out to be the most unusual group of Christians she could imagine. And she meets a couple that have been camping for thirteen days, hoping that with the RV Crispy Dream will give a prize to the person who has logged the longest time at camp. And, though she struggles with herself, she winds up calling on Jake, a boy who had declared his love for her not so long ago, only to have her remain speechless and leave him hanging.

During the time at Donut Camp, Emma's parents have to fight for their own dreams. Mr. O'Connor, the richest member of the church, has his own agenda, and when Emma's mom preaches that men and women are equal, it starts a cascade of events that soon envelopes everyone with their consequences.

DONUT DAYS is a great, insightful novel by Ms. Zielin. It reads quickly and touches the heart. Though Emma grows up in a minister's home, the story is so much more than that. Yes, Emma tries to make her parents see that she's her own person and wants a world beyond what they have in mind for her. But it's also a story of fighting for what you believe in and achieving your own dreams.

Emma is a strong character with her own insecurities - but a strong belief in herself and her dreams. show less

http://tinyurl.com/of3nng

Reviewing a friend's book is triply difficult: you don't want to offend, you want to get the word out, and you are nervous about your review being written adequately. That being said, I'm going to go for it.

Because in this case, it's really easy. I loved this YA novel, hands-down. It comes out on August 9, and I urge each and every one of you to buy it. Why, you say? First, a bit about present-day YA as I see it...

I'll admit to having read only a handful of current YA, all of them chosen by pals who thought I would like the new voice of young adult fiction. Why, oh why, could we not have had voices like this when I was still reading Judy Blume books? OK, Blume wrote in the 70s, what feels like one of the more show more emotionally-closed-off decades to grow up in. Perhaps that's why these books pop out at me so much.

In the case of Donut Days, the setting, issues, concept and plot all seem so fresh and new, and yet so grounded in today's world. Besides being a structure that works handsomely in this genre, Lara has chosen a setting that could have been impossible to deliver to any generation: the evangelist culture and how faith and its trappings can wreak havoc on the young. But... not in a manner that completely disses this culture, another impossible to have pulled off.

So, please, once you've read it, comment on this blog. I'd love to hear what you thought. show less

Emma's camping out at the opening of the new Crispy Dream donut store because she's hoping to win a college scholarship by writing an article about the event. See, Emma's evangelical Christian parents will only pay for college if she goes to a Christian school, so Emma's determined to pay her own way and go to a secular school. Which is why Emma's at the donut camp while her parents' world is falling apart and they face challenges from a wealthy congregant who wants to stop Emma's mom from preaching.

I loved Emma's voice and, though the plot was a little far-fetched at times, it's a good story with a lot of heart. I also loved the unique perspective and the fact that even though Emma is an evangelical Christian, she faces the same show more problems other teen girls face - friend issues, boy issues, parental issues...

Read my full review on my blog: http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-review-donut-days.html show less