The Candy Shop War
by Brandon Mull
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 715)
Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
pre-teens - adults
In the candy shop war Mull puts a new spin on the phrase "Don't take candy from strangers." The story takes four 5th graders in a small town who meet a woman, Mrs. White, selling strange confectioneries. In exchange for increasingly alarming tasks she offers the four friends candy that gives them the power to leap great distances, change their appearance, prank the school bullies, and dangerous powers. She also gives them sweets to keep their parents from noticing their strange new tal...more
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Read in June, 2008
I expected more from this book. The author said that his publishers only wanted one Fablehaven book per year, so he wrote this to fill up some time before the next Fablehaven book could come out. And honestly, it kind of feels like just a time filler. After about halfway, it picked up and I enjoyed it a lot more, but it still wasn't great. Definitely not what I expected from the author of Fablehaven...but I love those books so much (possibly more than Harry Potter) that maybe there was just no w...more
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recommends it for:
no one
I wanted to love this book from the very beginning. I absolutely loved the colorful, glittery cover, and the premise seemed like such fun. And I admit, I really liked the story. However, one thing will keep me from being able to recommend this title to others: the author's use of race. It made me very uncomfortable. From the start he unnecessarily describes non-white characters by their race. In an even worse example, when the main characters take a magic candy that is supposed to temporarily ch...more
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Read in June, 2008
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I felt he made children seem just a little too stupid in this one. It was very gripping, I just didn't like the portrayel of the characters. The children were too trusting, and too easily persuaded to steal from a high security place way too fast. I know magic candy is very appealing, but I'm afraid there are just too few children that are that gullible for this to be a good generalization. And if they are that gullible, then their parents are to blame for not teaching/protecting them, and he do...more
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Read in May, 2008
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first two Fablehaven books with Emily, so we thought we'd go for another book by Brandon Mull. We read most of it driving back and forth visiting family, and it helped the hour commute go by quickly and enjoyably.
I didn't gel as well with the characters; Nate and Trevor seemed pretty much the same and Summer was flat as well. Pidge had some roundness to him, but there wasn't much character development.
The plot was a little slow at times; most of the boo...more
I didn't gel as well with the characters; Nate and Trevor seemed pretty much the same and Summer was flat as well. Pidge had some roundness to him, but there wasn't much character development.
The plot was a little slow at times; most of the boo...more
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Read in July, 2008
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Read in February, 2008
A fun, unique, quick read. I remember lamenting to Bri a few years ago about the poor quality of LDS literature, especially children's literature. It tried too hard. It was cheesy. It was over the top. The writing was bad. No memorable characters or stories. I remember asking a co-worker of mine (back when I worked at B. Dalton before it closed) to ask the staff at Deseret Book for "a good adventure story, like Lord of the Rings." Their recommend? Letters for Emily. Urrrg! That's not a...more
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Read in February, 2008
Very well plotted and executed version of the traditional collective character child's adventure story, in which two or more protagonists essentially function as a collective, singular primary protagonist of the story (for other examples, see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Five Children and It, and the Mary Poppins books. For discussions of these, see The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature, by Maria Nikolajeva). The artist James Christensen once said (http://lizl.wordpress.com/2007... ... Li...more
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Read in September, 2007
I wanted to like this, but um...I couldn't. I read an ARC, so maybe the final version is better. . It was all I could do to not whip out the blue pencil and start correcting. The prose is extremely distracting. Too many -ing sentences (signifying continuing action) being used in sequential action scenes, resulting in things that aren't physically possible. I would have chopped out the first 25 pages and summarized them in a few lines. Dialogue not natural and kidlike. And Way. Too. Violent. ? I ...more
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Read in March, 2008
I picked this up because my 9-year-old wanted to read it and I had positive impressions of the author. The first couple of chapters were interesting and showed promise, but in the end I wasn't very impressed. The characters were good and the plot twists were great, but the premise was a bit disturbing: 10-year-olds too easily getting sucked into the schemes of evil adults, turning unsuccessfully to parents for help, and then eventually escaping with no significant consequences. Harry Potter w...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Everyone who likes Magic
This book was just lots of fun to read. Makes you a little leery of candy though – wonder what kind of mischief I could cause with my fudge. I was very glad to see that my instinct was right on as to whom to trust.
Four friends – Nate, Summer, Trevor, and Pigeon – find out just how much mischief can be caused when they decide to help the new Candy Shop owner, so that they can get magical candy. Initially, they love the fact that the magical white fudge causes their parents t...more
Four friends – Nate, Summer, Trevor, and Pigeon – find out just how much mischief can be caused when they decide to help the new Candy Shop owner, so that they can get magical candy. Initially, they love the fact that the magical white fudge causes their parents t...more
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Read in April, 2008
Yet another exciting and creative book from Brandon Mull. I tell you, this author is fantastic and this book is a lot of fun. He has 4 children as the main characters who have adventures with magical candy from the magician-owner of a candy shop.
The intrigue in the book is present even from the introduction, leaving the reader trying to guess for most of the book who is a "good guy" and who is a "bad guy". The finale is a (spoiler!) time-travel sequence remini...more
The intrigue in the book is present even from the introduction, leaving the reader trying to guess for most of the book who is a "good guy" and who is a "bad guy". The finale is a (spoiler!) time-travel sequence remini...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Meg by:
Alexrecommends it for: the young and young at heart
What a fun book! Recommended to me by my 11 year old son, I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I'm not saying he has bad taste in books, but I sometimes find YA fiction to be too obvious or just plain old boring. This one isn't. It's creative, well-paced, has believable characters and a great ending. I liked it so much I'm going to read the Fablehaven series by the same author. (My son recommends those too!)
Ok, one more thing: some people compare this author to JK Rowl...more
Ok, one more thing: some people compare this author to JK Rowl...more
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Read in May, 2008
Never take candy from strangers! Even if they seem nice! That is the moral of the story in a nutshell. When four friends enter the new Sweet Candy Shop, the owner offers to trade them magical candy for services. At first it's things like cleaning the windows and sweeping the floor, but soon escaltes into breaking into the town museum, grave robbing, and other sundry things. The kids aren't sure who to trust or if they're on the right side.
At first I kept comparing this novel to Fabelh...more
At first I kept comparing this novel to Fabelh...more
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Read in May, 2008
If Willy Wonka and Harry Potter had a baby, it would be The Candy Shop War. I've read several things comparing Fablehaven to Harry Potter, and I think that Mull's true goal is to be the next JK Rowling (especially when I read that Fablehaven is going to go far past 3 books). Here, the magic comes from candy handed out to children by evil magicians trying to get to the fountain of youth. Hello??? The Sorcerer's Stone??? There's even a wicked confusing time travel scene! I also don't like th...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
fans of children's stories
This book was much different than what I expected, in a good way. The four main characters were cute, though I often thought they seemed older than their 10-year-old selves. Not too much older, but a few years. They did have their "young" moments though. I loved all the candy in this book, all the magical stuff that it did. I think my favorites were either the Moon Rocks or possibly the Brain Feed. Another thing I enjoyed was all the subtle (and not so subtle) humor in the book. I thin...more
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Read in October, 2007
I was an undiscriminating librarian (and reader) and picked up this book for its fantastic cover without giving more than a cursory glance to the description in the jacket. In this case though, the contents were actually even more promising as the cover hinted. There's a treasure hunt, espionage, magic, and plenty of danger. There's plenty of adventure and intrigue to pull boys in as well as girls, and a little bit of humor along the way. As much as I love the cover, I'm not even sure it does th...more
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Read in May, 2008
This was an "interesting" book. I loved the premise - kids eat magical candy that give them powers. However, I didn't like the adult situations the kids were put in - robbing a museum, digging up a grave, etc. Also, all of the adult eat addicting white fudge and are basically "drugged out" the entire time. I read this book with Lindsey and she absolutely loved it! She and I were able to discuss the parts I was most uncomfortable with, so it led to a few good talks. Overall, t...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.05 (456 ratings) number of reviews: 165popular shelves
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quote
"ROOBING GRAVES! SHES ASKING US TO ROB GRAVES!"
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