The Candymakers

by Wendy Mass

Rating:***** (5 stars)
Age group: 10+
Type: Realistic fiction

Logan Sweet's father owns a candy company. His candy company is hosting 4 contestants in the Annual New Candy Contest, a contest where 32 contestants compete to make the best new candy. These 4 contestants are Logan Sweet, the candymaker's son, Miles O'Leary, an intellectual with many allergies, Daisy Carpenter, a cheerful and sunshiny girl, and Philip Ransford III, an obnoxious whiny grown-uppy boy who everyone hates. Immediately people start making friends. But Philip is left out. Nobody likes him. They tour the candy company, to prepare for the big competition. Logan's father has a secret ingredient that he uses to make his chocolate taste really good. Everybody wants to know what this ingredient is but nobody knows. And is everybody really who they appear to be?

Yes, this review is kind of all over the place, but the book is MUCH better. At first all the characters are on their own and then in the middle of the book 3 band up and 1 is left out and at the end... well I won't tell you the end. But this book is really great because all the characters change at least a little bit. This book is a mystery but is also just about candy, which mostly everybody loves. Also this book is really good because is has alternating viewpoints, so you could read about somebody doing something from, say, Logan's point of view and then get inside that person's head and find out why they did it in that person's point of view. It is also really good because each character ISN'T who they seem to be and if it really interesting once you find out who they actually are and why they act the way they act. 5 stars!!!
PARENTAL SECTION
Sexual parts: none
Violence: none
Fighting: see violence (e.g. none)
Pregnancy: no!!!!
Kissing/romance: mentioned in passing
Stealing: yes!
Vandalizing: no.