The Candy Shop War is a novel for children published by Brandon Mull in 2007. Mull is also the author of the very popular Fablehaven series of YA novels as well as its sequel series, Dragonwatch. The candy shop’s fictional setting of Colson is based on the Northern California community in which Mull grew up, though the resemblance does not extend to the magical components of the otherwise realistic story.
The novel’s official summary contained within the text describes the story thusly, admitting leaving out significant details:
"When fifth-graders Nate, Summer, Trevor, and Pigeon meet the owner of the new candy store in town and are given a magical candy that endows them with super powers, they find that along with its benefits there are also dangerous consequences."
The Candy Shop War represents something of a departure for the author whose others works more clearly reveal the strong influence of writers like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Unlike the settings in the Fablehaven and Dragonwatch series, Colson is a very typical small town with very typical kids doing very typical things. While there are no dragons or goblins, however, there is magic and not just of the Harry Houdini variety. In addition to the magical candy produced and consumed by the characters, Mull also blends with fantasy with myth by tying the plot machinations to the legend of the Fountain of Youth. By introducing supernatural elements into an otherwise realistic milieu, The Candy Shop War verges more closely into the territory of the Magical Realism of Latin American writers than the fantasy lands of the Brits.
A sequel published in 2012, The Candy Shop War: Arcade Catastrophe pulls Mull back closer to the other side of the world, however, in a story that feels more like something J.K. Rowling might have written than Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
