Stott tells the kids the nature of the treasure they are helping them look for, or how they plan to use it, or why they need kids to look for it and can’t just search on their own. Maybe that’s why a bounty hunter is prowling the streets, armed with serious weapons like guns and crossbows.

Stott, the old man who drives the local ice cream truck, is another – is full of secrets and dangers the children hardly suspect. Right away, this book surprises you by being darker and deeper than what the cover illustration leads you to expect. Errands that may, or may not, be the wrong thing to do. To earn it, the children must run some special errands for her. But then she reveals some “secret candy” that has magical powers. In return, she offers them scrumptious candy. The lady is so nice, in fact, that she invites the Blue Falcons (that’s their club) to do a little work at her shop after school. Together these kids face a nasty new teacher, try to avoid a trio of bullying sixth-graders, and make friends with the nice old lady who runs the new candy shop downtown. But before he even realizes what he is doing, he has joined a gang that includes Trevor, a girl named Summer, and the class nerd, who goes by the nickname Pigeon. He is not eager to start over at a new school and to try making new friends. Nate is new in the small town of Colson, California. Magical candy, of the sort the Honeydukes people only dream of selling. This book has it, with an image of four middle-school kids running, skipping, dancing up into the air, trailing glittering pieces of candy.

Where shall I begin? All right, the front cover. In the middle of writing his Fablehaven series, one book per year (now coming up on the third book), Brandon Mull somehow squeezed out this completely unrelated, and yet absolutely marvelous book.

The candy shop war book series