Raja and the Giant Donut

Raja and the Giant Donut, a Scrumptious Cream-filled Canine Adventure

Romantic, Spastic, Adventurous

Review by Alison Sutton (FolkHeart Press intern)

When a book involving a donut in the title comes up, one can only believe it to be geared strictly towards children, but not in this case. Raja and the Giant Donut, a Scrumptious Cream-filled Canine Adventure by Mumbi writer Prashant Pinge, gives a glimpse into the romantic, spastic, and adventurous life of canine’s that any age group can appreciate.

Raja and the Giant Donut is a delicious non-fiction adventure that follows Raja, a “golden brown mongrel” on the search for the world’s largest donut. Along with Raja are his two stray friends; Pakya, a white and black canine who is obsessed with a beautiful Golden Retriever Bianca and Gattu, a golden retriever who is always hungry. The three pals embark on an adventure from Shivaji Park in Mumbai to Sambhaji Park in Pune to find the giant donut.

Although they are faced with many challenges along the way, their friendship unites them, which is something all readers can relate to. Many lessons brought up in Raja and the Giant Donut can be linked to real life situations. While the story revolves mostly around the threesome’s pursuit for the giant donut, it also brings to light how canines and animals overcome their own limitations, encourage one another and never give up on their dreams. By the end of their journey, each canine has gained some knowledge about life which they apply once they are home.

At the beginning, I was not sure about reading over one hundred pages about a canine searching for a giant donut, but by the end it was an entertaining journey. I was taken on an adventure filled with descriptive language that brought me deep into the story. The descriptive words drew a perfect picture in which you could easily imagine this group of canines chowing down on a giant donut.

A downside to the book is that the reader will find the translation of the story not fully aligned with American English, thus making the reader take a second to evaluate the words being used. While some language may be confusing, a glossary is provided at the end of the book. This glossary may have been more helpful at the beginning of the book so readers are aware that a glossary may be needed.

An adorable addition to the book is a donut recipe at the end. Making your own chocolate glazed donut with sprinkles gives a more personal connection with Raja and the overall adventure.

I enjoyed reading Raja and the Giant Donut and believe it would be a great book for parents to read along with their children. Both parent and child will enjoy the giant donut adventure as well as enjoy making their own giant donut to chow on while they read about Raja’s journey. I recommend this book to anyone who loves dogs, donuts, adventure, and taking away valuable lessons from stories.

Ali Sutton is a graduating Senior from Sonoma State University majoring in Communications studies with an emphasis in Journalism and Public Relations. She has written for her schools newspaper as well as kept up a blog focusing on relationships gone bad, called Relation-Shits which can be found at blogspot.com.