How Sweet It Is (and Was): The History of Candy

I enjoyed this book because I am sure children are interested in candy. The illustrations are very vivid. It touches briefly on the history of several different types of candy. It would have been better if it had been a series that focuses on individual types of candy (one per book). However, it gives a brief overview and a nice timeline at the end of the book. I especially like how they touch on "sugar" and its importance and history as it relates to candy.

I didn't like this book much, and at first I wasn't quite sure why. I had to read it again to understand my reaction.I think one of the big negatives of the book is the illustrations. On the front cover is a picture of vacant, zombie-like children playing in a pile of candy spilling out of a box. The picture is vaguely sinister; if I didn't know better, I would have thought that the book was going to be about how sugar is bad for kids. The illustrations do not get better from there. Many of the pictures have the same style, with the people in them missing pupils, and therefore looking like masks. The illustrations can also be misleading, and probably confusing at times, with respect to the history that is being discussed.For example, on show more the page that discusses how chocolate came from the Mayans and Aztecs,there is a man at the bottom of the page in some type of ancient traditional dress, but eating a chocolate bunny--the kind we would buy today. I think that can be confusing. There are many illustrations, like this one, that inject the illustrator's humor, but in some cases I think this humor would be lost on the target reader.

Also, I thought that the writing could have been better. The first two pages of the book talk about different kinds of candy and why and when we eat them. This could have been said in a couple of lines, and there is a strange, maniacal-looking man on a computer in the beginning of the book. Overall, it was a strange effect.The story, by design, must jump around from period to period and different geographical locations, but I thought there could have been a little more explanation, and perhaps even a global map to give the child perspective of the places that are being discussed. Again, throughout, the pictures were not that interesting, and in some cases perhaps over the reader's head. I wouldn't recommend this one. show less

The illustrations are rich in this text, and so are the facts. This book has a vast conglomeration of neat facts that children would find interesting. This book has a very high text level, so it would be a book that students would need help reading if they hadn't reach 4th grade yet. You could use this book as an interactive read aloud to prep before a lesson on creating time lines through out history.

Goes over the history of candy -- from sugar canes to Hershey's chocolate.
Themes -- candy
The pictures in this books are very interesting (a spoon trebuchet launching sugar cubes). It is a good example of a pleasurable non-fiction book.

I would use this book with fifth grade because the book is complex with new words and lengthy passages. I would use this book as independent read because students could read this book as a fun read to learn facts that happened during different parts of history.