Candy For All

Just finished an AWESOME book, that's right folks that AWESOME was in all caps, that is just how much I liked this book.  What book is this that deserves an all caps AWESOME you ask, well I will tell you.  The book is The Candymakers by Wendy Mass, it was a completely random acquisition and and even more random read (I accidentally touched it on my e-reader going for a different book), but as happens on those most wonderful of occasions, random acts of reading paid off.

Ok this is were I usually go and spoil all the fun for everybody by writing a detailed rambling synopsis, but I am not going to do that this time.  I will do my very best to leave out any major spoilers because that is half the fun of this book.

Essentially the book is about four kids who are contestants in the annual New Candy Contest.  The contestants are all 12 years old and will be on of 32 competitors.  The winner of the contest gets $1000, but more importantly his/her candy will be mass produced and sold in stores, thus potentially jump starting a persons candy making career.  Let's meet our cast shall we.  First up is Logan Sweet, he is the son of the Candymaker (with a capital C) and lives with his mother an father in the Life Is Sweet factory.  Logan is home schooled and does not have a lot of association with other children.  His biggest talent is to be able to taste a sweet and tell exactly what's in it, and exactly what it needs to make it perfect.  He is hoping to win the competition with his Bubbletastic ChocoRocket...if he can just get it perfected.  He wants to win to continue on in the tradition of his Grandfather who won with the Pepsicle and his Father who won with the Neon Yellow Lightning Chew.  He is a bit on the clumsy side, but is a sincere boy who genuinely loves the candy making business.  Next up we have Miles O'Leary, who is a bit of a strange little dude.  He carries

around a backpack with him constantly and has a weird obsession with the afterlife. Miles has some weird allergies and seems to be afraid of his own shadow.  At heart he is a good kid and loves a good hug.  Daisy Carpenter is next on our list.  This quirky vibrant girl even rides her horse to the factory one day.  She is strong, loud and willing to stick up for the little guy.  Her best friend Magpie is partial to Pepsicles and she likes to read, especially romance novels about cowboys.  Finally we come to Phillip Ransford III, a stuffy young man who arrives at the factory in a limo, wearing a suit and tie.  He is not very endearing and very quickly drops the bomb that he does not even like candy.  He tells everyone his sole reason for entering the competition is to win.  He is constantly scribbling away in a notebook that he refuses to let anybody see.  So that is our gang of kids, a variety of characters that seems to fill the requisites in Middle Grade (MG) reading...but not all is at it seems.  The book is actually best summed up by a quote from the beginning of the book,

 "Once there were four children whose names were Logan, Miles, Philip, and Daisy. Each of them had recently turned twelve, and although none of them knew it yet, their lives would never be the same. You might ask, what makes them so special that their essays were selected over hundreds of others? Why do they each want to win the contest so badly they are willing to risk everything? Perhaps it would be best to show you. Let’s start with Logan, since he is the Candymaker’s son, after all. But don’t think he has an edge in the contest just because he was born smelling like chocolate. Logan has the hardest task, for he must be your eyes and ears. Pay close attention to what he tells you about the others— and himself— and what he doesn’t. The others will get their chance, too, but it’s only fair to start with Logan because if it weren’t for his father’s generous invitation to help prepare the others for the contest, Miles, Daisy, and Philip wouldn’t be standing outside the Life Is Sweet candy factory right now, wondering if they should knock on the huge wooden door or just let themselves in."
Mass, Wendy (2010-10-05). The Candymakers (pp. 5-6). Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Kindle Edition.

I don't want to give anything away, because a) I can't do it justice, the way things are revealed is pretty cool, b) I really want you all to read this book and enjoy it the way I did c) it was a 450 page book that felt like 100 pages and that is a lot to sum up.  I will try and hit some of my favorite non-spoilery parts for you.
The Factory- The factory itself is amazing!!! It has a Willy Wonka feel to it, minus the Oompa Loompas and magic.  Well actually that is not entirely true, there is magic, but it comes in a realistic form of the sheer awesomeness of people who love what they do.  Anyways back to the factory.  Life Is Sweet does its best to produce all of the raw materials for there goodies right on the premises.  This means in addition to the candy rooms (The Taffy Room, the Some more S'more's room, the Cocoa Room, etc.) there is a fully working farm, orchard and ranch.  The best part of the factory is the Tropical room where they have figured out a way to grow cinnamon trees, vanilla beans and a special variety of cocoa tree.  I think I could spend forever and a day exploring this place.
The Candy-One of my favorite things about this book is that it is continually describing new candies and new candy making techniques.  A lot of books that use a premise like this one load the front end with all kinds of awesome descriptions and variety and then the last 3/4 of the book don't introduce anything new.  This book is continually introducing us to new treat, new varieties and new ways to make things, be warned have a bag of candy with you when you read it.  These are real candy (well real as in not magic beans or anything like that) the Oozing Crunchorama is described perfectly with hazelnuts, chocolate, carmal and other yummy things.  At the competition itself many of the entries are described and this just adds awesomeness to the very end.
The Adults-In MG and YA books adults tend to fall into one of two categories, either meanie heads out to get the kids or practically non-existent.  In this book there are a few of those, but for the most part the adults are as realistically involved in the children's lives as one would see in the real world.  Keeping in mind that not every kid in this book has a traditional life, but the adults including the workers at the factory have a good
mix of authority, empathy, and frustratedness that one sees from adults dealing with 12 year olds.  Also most of the adults have a great sense of humor adding to the overall awesome tone of the book.
The Kids-After all is said and done (and there is a lot to say and do) this is actually a story about friendship.  Sure there are a ton of twists and the mystery/problem is harrowing, the solution difficult, but in the end it is about four very very different kids figuring out not only who they are, but how they fit into the world and with each other.  The friendships do not come easy and has to evolve several times over the course of the book, but by the end they all agree if nothing else to keep working at the friendship. This is a great book to show readers to never take a person at face value because you never know there true motivation at the outset.  Also how you perceive a person may not be at all how they perceive themselves.
The Story/Writing-The concept and execution of this book is truly AWESOME (sorry I just can't type that in lowercase letters).  A story of this type could very easily get out of hand, but the author keeps just the right amount of...I don't even know what it is, but she did it.  This was a 450 page book that I finished in a day and a half (hence the lack of post yesterday), I did not even realize how long it was until I was done.  To me that is a sign of a good author, one who can keep your attention and have you turning the pages as fast as you can.  Another good thing about the story is that it was interesting all the way through.  A lot of times with books like these you just want to get to the part where the secret is revealed, sometimes you don't even care about the in between stuff you just want to figure out what the heck is going on.  In this book the author does a good job setting up the questions and then doling out the answers fairly evenly through out the story, also you actually care about the characters themselves so after a while the secrets become secondary...until she reveals one and then you are like WOW OMG AHHHHH.  The only tiny nitpick is that there are a couple highly coincidental/far fetched things that make you roll your eyes a bit, you know especially those two things (read the book and then you will know what I am talking about), but in the end you just let yourself accept it and enjoy the ride. Also as far as rereadabilty goes it's kind of like The Sixth Sense once you know the secret it takes a certain Ahhness away.

In case you haven't figured it out yet I loved this book, I am sorry for the lack of details, but it must be read with out any spoilers for the full AWESOMENESS to take effect.  This is a great one to read with your kids, or curled up with your favorite treat, or to read out loud to a class (hmmm this would make a great class project that you could learn to make your own candies while reading it).  I think almost anybody would enjoy this book and give it a 9 out of 10 Oozing Crunchoramas!
What book have you accidentally started and could not put down?  How awesome are the cheapo deals on e-books that make you pick things up you never thought of before?  What kind of candy would you invent?  Is it weird I like books with yellow covers?