Stick Dog Tries to Take the Donuts

Tom Watson's Stick Dog Tries to Take the Donuts is a fast, daft story for 7 year olds about five hungry strays and a treat they've never even heard of.

What happens

It's autumn. The children are back at school, there are no food vans about, and the dogs have been living on berries and creek water for days. Karen says one more berry will make her lose her mind (which starts a long, puzzled chat about where exactly your mind goes when you lose it).

It opens with Poo-Poo doing what he does best, running headfirst into a bin. He does it on purpose because it feels SO good when he stops. That tells you most of what you need to know about Poo-Poo.

A loud clanging leads them to a man at the top of a telephone pole, with a crane truck parked below. Karen is certain he's perched like a bird, waiting to swoop down on some human food (hamburgers, pizza, that sort of thing).

Then the man comes down for a snack. Stick Dog watches him bite into something round with a red middle that smells of strawberries. Then comes something pink and speckled. It looks like a tiny version of the giant spinning sign down the road, and the box says Dizzy's Donuts.

The others aren't convinced it's food. Soon they're deep in an argument about whether Frisbees count as food at all (Mutt has eaten several and considers himself an expert).

The funniest stretch belongs to Karen. She gets her head stuck in the man's enormous coffee cup and drinks the lot. Then she talks at top speed, makes up rhymes and chases her tail both ways. When Stick Dog carries her to safety by the scruff, the others decide he's trying to eat her. Or drink her.

It's all played for laughs, though it's probably not one for the family dog to copy!

The narrator, Tom, butts in whenever he likes. He moans about the gym teacher who stretches out his name during dodgeball. He reminds you of your deal, too. You're not allowed to complain about his drawings, because he already knows he's a pretty bad drawer.

If your reader enjoys characters who are gloriously, confidently wrong, there's plenty here. Stick Dog is the patient one, and your reader gets to be in on the joke with him.

It's the fifth Stick Dog book, but the gang and their habits are explained as you go.

What to read next

That deal about the drawings was first made in the very first Stick Dog book, where the narrator explains how Stick Dog got his name and the five friends sniff out a barbecue in the park.