- Graphic Novels
- Ages 5–8
- Comedy
Donut Feed the Squirrels
Book 1 of 4 in Norma and BellyView the full series
Two scrappy city squirrels, Norma and Belly, hatch an incognito heist to raid the donut truck parked by their tree. A madcap, warm-hearted caper in comic-panel form that earned an Eisner Honor for early readers.
- Best for5–8
- FormatGraphic
- Length112 pp
- Read aloud~53 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Comedic
- Conversational
Tone
- Funny
- Silly
- Warm
- Exciting
- Whimsical
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
When Norma burns the breakfast pancakes, she and her best friend Belly go looking for something better to eat and discover Mr. Spritzer's food truck selling glorious donuts. Getting their paws on one, of course, is another matter. With bespectacled Gramps and the tiny, plucky Little Bee recruited into the plot, the four squirrels mount an increasingly ridiculous incognito mission to liberate the donuts they crave. Mika Song's expressive, loose watercolour-and-ink art and short, punchy comic panels make this a perfect first graphic novel: the reading load is light, the pacing is quick, and the jokes land for children and the adults reading along. The heist goes wrong in all the best ways, the squirrels bicker and scheme like a proper comic duo, and the real reward turns out to be doing it together. An Eisner Honor winner and a gentle, entirely low-stakes introduction to the caper story.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
Best-fit around 5 to 8. The very light text and heavy visual support make it a confident early independent read, while the humour reads aloud well to 4-year-olds. Not much adult crossover — it's squarely a children's caper.
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- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 5–8
- Read aloud · 4–7
- Independent · 5–8
Prose load
Minimal
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
3 / 5 · Workable
Sensitive-child
5 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Reluctant readers
- Laugh out loud
- Feel good
- First graphic novel
Avoid if
No common reasons to avoid this one — a rare clean sweep on the sensitivity flags.
Particularly good for children who are…
- Reluctant reader
- Struggling with reading
- Making friends
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
Norma and Belly scheme, sneak and squabble their way toward a donut truck in disguises that fool nobody. The plans go gloriously sideways, Little Bee steals every scene, and the comic panels move so fast that even readers who dread chapter books tear straight through it.
- Trickery and cleverness
- Breaking the rules safely
- Friendship and belonging
- Unlimited treats
- The underdog winning
Why parents love it
The reading load is feather-light and the humour is genuinely shared, so a reluctant reader can fly through it while you enjoy the sly visual gags. Mika Song's warm art and low-stakes caper make it an easy, repeatable win — and an Eisner Honor's worth of quality behind it.
- Shared humour
- Quick to read
- Indie gem discovery
In the series
Norma and Belly.
4 books · open the series →
About the author & illustrator
Mika Song.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
