By Brandon Mull
At just over 400 pages, this is a long book, but it certainly packs in all sorts of action (most of it magical) and keeps you wanting to read more.
Four friends, Nate, Summer, Trevor, and Pigeon, decide to take a break from their dare-devil stunts one day and enter the new candy shop in town. Short on money, they talk the owner of the Sweet Tooth Ice Cream Candy Shoppe, Belinda White, into giving them some odd jobs to complete in return for a little candy. However, the candy is not only free, but it is also magical, enabling them to fly through the air and become indestructible. Each job they are given is a bit more dangerous and a bit more evil until they finally realize that Belinda is using them to do her dirty work. The friends reluctantly decide to stop helping Belinda which also means no more magical candy.
Where they stop, the three biggest bullies in the school pick up. Nate and friends then seek help from another magician in town (also a candy seller), who as it turns out, is also interested in what Belinda is after. This is where the war begins and the action takes off. Using all sorts of magical candy, the kids float, shoot electric shock from their fingers, talk to animals, travel back and forth in time, perform amazing athletic feats, and travel through a mysterious wonderland of mirrors. Nate and his friends must work together in order to stop Mrs. White and the bullies before it is too late.
We have all heard the expression, "Don't take candy from strangers" and this book gives it a whole new meaning. After reading it, you may never feel the same about entering a candy store!!
