It's time for the annual candy making competition! At the Life is Sweet candy factory, things are definitely much more exciting. Four 12-year-olds with their own stories to tell: Logan; the Candymaker's son, Daisy; a girl with a huge secret, Miles; an innocent thoughtful boy with a hidden past, and Phillip; a young contestant seeking revenge. As the Confectionary's Association's Annual Convention goes nearer, the contestants find themselves all facing an unlikely turn of events.

A book of unlik More...

The Candymakers is a well written book by Wendy Mass.The beginning of this book is retold 4 different times, each for one of the characters perspectives. Logan, Miles, Daisy and Phillip are finally 12, old enough to enter the Candy- making competition, something they've been waiting to enter for a long time. Find out more in The Candymakers

Great book! A good surprise around every corner. It made me hungry. :)

REVIEW

Do not read this book if you are hungry. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! The Candymakers is a clever middle grade book about four children in a national candy-making contest. Yummy!

The book begins from Logan’s perspective. He actually lives in the candy factory, and his account of things is pretty nuts-and-bolts. Ah, but then the point-of-view changes to the other kids (Miles, Daisy, and Philip). That’s when things really get interesting! With each perspective, I learned something new. I also More...

The Candymakers
Wendy Mass
453 pages
realistic fiction

The Candymakers is about 32 12-year-old contestants competing in a candy making contest. Four of them are making their creation at the Life Is Sweet candy factory, where one of the contestants lives because he is the Candymaker's son. The other three are Philip- a rude boy with a secret about the factory, Miles-a shy, know it all, who loves the afterlife, and Daisy-the only girl out of the four, but definitely the toughest and only has one reaso More...

Haven had been asking me to read this book for many months. She loved it and was sure that I would. I finally got a kindle and it was the first full book I read on it, since it was already on our account. The first section was not what I wanted to read. Think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets Mary Poppins - very heavy on the candy and the adjectives, low on plot content. I threatened to Haven to stop reading numerous times. Heck, I don't even like candy (for real - I don't). She begged me More...

Four children have been chosen to compete in a national competition to find the tastiest confection in the country. Who will invent a candy more delicious than the Oozing Crunchorama or the Neon Lightning Chew?
Logan, the Candymaker's son, who can detect the color of chocolate by touch alone?
Miles, the boy who is allergic to merry-go-rounds and the color pink?
Daisy, the cheerful girl who can lift a fifty-pound lump of taffy like it's a feather?
Or Philip, the suit-and-tie wearing boy who's alway More...

i think that this book was very intresting.this book called the candymakers is similar to charlie and the chocolate factory.today i am going to write about how good the author described times in the book. an example is when the author described logan sweet's room. it helped me visualize even better.overall this also helped me smell his room.plus it helped me feel and taste some thins in logan's room. another example is when the author described why the kids had wierd last names.what i mean are l More...

Yaaaaaaay!!!!! I figured out how to write a review. I think.... Anyways, I really hated this book. Sorry to all those people who like it a ton and gave it five stars and stuff but it sucked. So far.

My reasoning for why I do not like this book:
1. It is sooooooooo repetitive. Yes, I know, you are reading it from many points of views, but couldn't it- I don't know... Just have the next main character just take it where the book left off?
2. I'm getting bored reading it. There's nothing interesting a More...

elementary & up

Four kids are visiting the Life is Sweet factory to take part in an annual Candymaker competition. Each is trying to come up with an idea for the next World's Greatest Candy. To add a little spice to the competition, it turns out that all of the contestants have both hidden talents and hidden secrets. Even more interesting is that someone is trying to steal the factory's secret ingredient.
I greatly enjoyed this book. It is told in sections. We are informed in the beginning tha More...

The Confectionary Association’s annual contest is approaching, and four kid contestants are preparing their new candy at Life is Sweet candy factory. Each of the four has his or her own reason for entering the contest, but they may not be what you expect. The author uses sections to tell the events leading up to the contest from four people’s point of view: Logan, the sweet, honest son of the Candymaker; shy and quirky Miles; friendly but inexplicably strong Daisy; and aloof, snooty Philip. Just More...

Adorable offering by Wendy Mass, who is becoming one of my favorite authors for the upper elementary age group.

Mixing a bit of the current cooking contests craze (such as Cupcake Wars, and Food Network Challenge) minus the TV aspect, and a smidge of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with a whole lot of warmth and humor Wendy Mass has created a charming tale of competition, teamwork, varied personalities, and friendship.

I really liked the complexity of the four main characters. Told from all four More...

A good read, told from the points of view of 4 children who have been selected to compete in a candy making contest (although they were chosen, not because of candy making ability or even interest, but through an essay contest). Over the 2 1/2 days of the story, the children spend their days at the candy factory while they receive a crash course in candy making and work out how to make their chosen candies (or do they?).

However, each child has a past replete with secrets--Logan has mysterious s More...

The Candymakers is as delicious as it sounds. Four 12 year olds are given the opportunity to invent and make an exciting new candy in an actual candy factory. The book opens as the contestants arrive at the factory.

Logan lives at the factory, he is the candymaker's son. He feels a certain amount of pressure to prove himself and live up to his family's history of creating award-winning candy. He knows what he wants to create but lacks confidence in his technical skill.

Daisy is a bright, sunny gir More...

School Library Journal (November 1, 2010)
Gr 4-8-Children running amok in a candy factory, immortalized by Roald Dahl, is one story line that bears repeating. At the Life Is Sweet factory, four 12-year-olds gather to create new goodies for the annual Confectionery Association Conference. Logan, the Candymaker's son, dreams of winning his family's respect. Miles's parents hope the experience will help him forget a tragic accident he couldn't prevent. Daisy is fascinated by the factory, but for wha More...

Out of hundreds of entries, four contestants in eight regions will compete to win the Annual Candy Contest sponsored by the Confectionary Association. In Region Three, Logan Sweet would seem to have a special advantage as the son of the owner of the Life Is Sweet Candy Factory--he rarely even leaves the factory and can differentiate among types of chocolate by touch. The other three contestants who will come to the factory have their own stories--Miles is obsessed with the afterlife; Philip wear More...

I listened to most of this on audio and really enjoyed the writing. Mass reveals the complexity of the characters as in each new "part," the story is retold to a certain point from another character's perspective...

From School Library Journal
Gr 4-8–Children running amok in a candy factory, immortalized by Roald Dahl, is one story line that bears repeating. At the Life Is Sweet factory, four 12-year-olds gather to create new goodies for the annual Confectionery Association Conference. Logan, the More...

Logan, the candymaker's son. Miles, an eccentric who likes to talk about the afterlife. Daisy, blond and cheery but slightly mysterious. Philip, snooty, competitive and secretive. Four kids with one thing in common - they've each been chosen to compete in the annual new candy contest against twenty-eight other kids. The winner will get to have his or her candy mass produced for the whole world to enjoy. The prize is prestigious and exciting, but three of these kids are in it for reasons other th More...

Logan, Daisy, Miles and Philip have all been chosen as finalists in a national candymaking competition. They all assemble at the Life is Sweet candy factory to learn the art of candymaking and to develop their treats. Told from each character's point of view, the story gives you a glimpse of a magical candy world in a thoroughly non-magical (if not exactly entirely realistic) setting. Willy Wonka's factory this place is not. Here all of the treats are made by ordinary, if devoted, humans and the More...

Didn't have time to review this one when I posted yesterday. I adore other books by Mass so I bought this one without knowing anything about it. Sat down to read it yesterday morning and didn't move until the afternoon. I throughly enjoyed the four characters - Logan, Miles, Daisy, and Philip. They have entered a national candy contest where they will each create their own candy. The winner gets some cash and their candy created by a factory and marketed world-wide.

There are five sections of the More...

Important note:I got a copy of this at ALA in June, passed it to my 11 year old, and she really enjoyed it. That's a far better recommendation than mine or any other grownups...
This is being compared to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in which 5 kids win a contest to tour a magical candy factory. But here 4 kids are at a wonderful but very non-magical candy factory to COMPETE in a contest, and we see the 2 days they spend together through each of their eyes in turn.
Dahl's kids were cartoony- More...

The first section feels as uneven as a fault line. Then Mass shakes things up. All is not what it seems. The novel jumps genres a few times.

Hold onto that thought while I address another problem this novel has.

It's a story about kids participating in a contest in a candy factory. Uhhhh sound familiar? Yeah a little. People are inevitably going to compare this to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and because of that Mass needed to start strong.

It doesn't. Like I said, that first sixty or so page More...

I've turned this one over and over in my mind since reading this out loud with my kids.
Round every corner there is a surprise. Mass has created a wondrous story, so multilayered and decadent it is almost impossible to put the book down.

Four remarkable, (but relatively normal kids) embark on a contest of a lifetime, to create a new candy for mass production.
Logan, the candymaker's son, out to prove, to himself mostly, that he has what it takes to walk in his famous grandfather, and father's f More...

I love Wendy Mass. There, I admitted it. I've been in a YA phase lately and Wendy Mass is mostly to blame. I think I may have read all of her books now, so I sit here in my sadness waiting for her to write another one. This is a great story of being comfortable in your own skin, following what you believe, finding friendship in unlikely places, and teamwork... Great themes to discuss with any young reader. And it's about a candy factory and candy-making! Fun! Interesting characters with some une More...

I really loved this book. It follows four children that are entered in a candy making contest. Logan the candymakers son, Miles, Daisy and Phillip. The book tells the story of the same two days from each child's perspective. Then switches back to Logan to narrate the end (although we still occaisionally hear from the other children. I really liked getting each characters point of view. As you read each part you get a little more information about the other children and other things going on in t More...

"'Why do you like books so much?' he asked.
Miles answered without taking his face away from the window. 'You never know what you'll learn when you open one. And if it's a story, you sort of fall into it. Then you live there for a while, instead of, you know, living here.'"

—The Candymakers, P. 118

"Some people have scars on the inside, and other people's are on the outside. It shouldn't matter."

—Logan Sweet, The Candymakers, P. 423

I really think that this might be my surprise book of the yea More...

Meet Miles, Daisy, Phillip, and Logan. They are the four lucky twelve-year-olds chosen to compete in a contest of sugary goodness. At the end of a large factory tour, all candidates have to submit a brand new confection they invented themselves and the winning selection will be mass-produced for the whole world to enjoy! Logan has a leg up, being the head Candymakers son. But even though he can tell when the honeybees in the Life is Sweet factory are happy or depressed, he is not quite sure he w More...

I just adored this book. It is a wonderful tale of true friendship. When I wasn’t reading it I wanted to be reading it. My only complaint was that I didn’t start it on a weekend!

The story is very unique in that the same three days events are told over and over again by each of the main characters points of view; beginning with Logan, then Miles, then Daisy and then Phillip. Each individual retelling ends right at the book’s cliffhanger and then you have to read through the next person’s narrativ More...

Join Logan,Miles,Philip,and Daisy as they compete in the candymaking contest of their dreams.They each need to make a candy so extraordinary that even Logan's father (the Candymaker)hasn't thought of.Only one can win! Things aren't as they seem at the candy factory.

In the Candymakers, I am a lot like Philp because he is hard headed, and I am some times like that too.He is hard headed to sheild himself from painful memories, like when his mom died. I am like that because my kitten died when I More...