Local woman turns her lifelong love of doughnuts into an inspirational book

Denise Neil
·2 min read

She loves doughnuts — so much that a local doughnut shop named one of their offerings after her. So much that she once filled an entire notebook with observations about different doughnuts she’d tried.

Now, Wichitan Johnna Kolar has authored a sweet little doughnut book, and she says you “donut” want to miss it.

Kolar, a local substitute teacher and a longtime member of the Wichita Eagle Dining Panel, has just self-published “A Donut a Day,” and she’ll be signing copies this weekend and next.

Wichita doughnut lover Johnna Kolar has written an uplifting doughnut-themed book called “A Donut a Day.”
Wichita doughnut lover Johnna Kolar has written an uplifting doughnut-themed book called “A Donut a Day.”

The 5x5-inch book is spiral bound and includes encouraging doughnut sayings. “Donut Give Up” is the entry for Jan. 31. “Donut you Know You’re Loved?” is Feb. 18th’s entry. There’s a different uplifting “donut” pun for every day of the year, and because there are no days of the week or year listed, the book can be used year after year, Kolar said.

The idea for the book was inspired by two of Kolar’s loves: teaching and doughnuts. The “social contracts” posted at schools where she works in the Maize district, which list how students should behave and conduct themselves, caught her attention, and she started thinking of a way she could create a list of life instructions that incorporated doughnuts.

She’s loved doughnuts since she was a kid, she said, and they turned into one of her passions when The Donut Whole at 1720 E. Douglas first opened in 2009. Back then, she’d go in several times a week, always carrying a small, spiral-bound pink notebook. Each time she visited, she’d try a new flavor and jot down her thoughts in her notebook. She became known in the shop as “the pink notebook lady,” and she sampled and listed 389 doughnuts before her notebook was filled.

Eventually, the owners created a doughnut that they dubbed “The Johnna.” It’s a banana doughnut double dipped in peanut butter with gold glitter, and it still lands in the Donut Whole rotation every now and then.

There’s a different donut inspirational thought for every day of the year in “A Donut A Day.”
There’s a different donut inspirational thought for every day of the year in “A Donut A Day.”

Kolar’s favorite doughnut shop these days is the Sugar Shak Daylight Donuts at 21st and Tyler, which makes a maple iced long john with white fluff filling that she says is the best doughnut in town.

The new book, Kolar said, will be just her latest doughnut accessory. The kids she teaches in Maize know her for her doughnut backpack, doughnut insulated lunchbox, doughnut lanyard, doughnut mask and doughnut phone case.

Copies of “A Donut A Day” are $15 with tax. Kolar will be selling and signing copies from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday at Moxi Junction, 319 S. Park in Maize, and from 9 to 11 a.m. Dec. 11 at Sugar Shack, 2121 N. Tyler.

To order a copy, email johnnakolar389@gmail.com