Review: The Candymakers

Title: The Candymakers

Author: Wendy Mass

Publication Date: January 1st, 2010

Publisher: Little, Brown Books

Genre: Middle Grade (tween) mystery

Pages: 453

Source: bought

Rating: 2 1/2. I'd give this book an awkward hug

Summary from Goodreads: In the town of Spring Haven, four children have been selected to compete in the national candymaking contest of a lifetime. Who will make a candy more delicious than the Oozing Crunchorama or the Neon Yellow Lightning Chew?

Logan, the candymaker's son, who can detect the color of chocolate by feel alone?

Miles, the boy allergic to rowboats and the color pink?

Daisy, the cheerful girl who can lift a fifty-pound lump of taffy as if it were a feather?

Philip, the suit-and-tie-wearing boy who's always scribbling in a secret notebook?

This sweet, charming, and cleverly crafted story, told from each contestant's perspective, is filled with mystery, friendship, and juicy revelations.

My thoughts: I thought I would love this book, but I only liked it. The premise sounded wonderful and I enjoy a good middle grades read, but this fell below my expectations. I loved all the parts about candy and the factory (which, to be honest, was a large chunk of the book), but somewhere along the line it just fell a little flat for me; everything came together too neatly. It’s definitely a book I would recommend to middle grade readers. But for me, it was too middle grade level (and maybe that's me judging too harshly because it is a middle grade book); I don’t really see it as having much crossover appeal because the storyline was just too simplistic. The characters were well-drawn, but, again, all of the conflict resolved too easily which was a bit of a letdown after spending 450 pages with this book.

Which brings up another point: to me, this seemed quite long for a middle grade read. It’s told from multiple points of view (four – Logan, Miles, Philip, and Daisy), and this makes sense for the story, but it also really stretched the story out. Though Mass does a great job of not repeating herself over and over each time the POV switches, even though we get a replay the same time period, I feel that this was far too long to hold my attention; I kept waiting to get to the end, counting how many pages I had left (sometimes that’s a good thing because it means I’m getting sad for the story to end, but this one just didn’t hold my interest).

The details were what made the story for me, particularly Daisy’s POV and the candy factory in general. I really, really want to live in this factory. Maybe Logan’s family would adopt me. J The characters were likable for the most part, but I didn’t feel any real connections to any of them, though I see how a younger reader could draw parallels with any of the children – Daisy with absent parents, Philip without a mother and a demanding father, Miles with his past trauma, and Logan with his issue (don’t want to spoil anything!).

Overall, The best part was definitely the competition at the end and finally finding out about the secret ingredient (though not entirely predictable, quite cheesy), the two things that really kept me reading. Mass definitely has a great imagination and I would love to taste all of those candies. Recommended for readers at a middle grade reading level who can handle a long book.

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All reviews are solely the opinions of Becky and/or Randi. We are not paid in any way for our reviews, and all opinions are 100% honest.