Review by Booklist Review
Situated above a running time line marking developments in sweets (and also in dentistry), Love and Drake's text lightheartedly retraces historical highlights in the transformation of bee barf, mammal secretions, aphid poop, stem sap, root pulp and bean fat into an array of yummy confections--from ancient Egypt's marshmallows to modern fudge, gummy worms, and chocolate-chip cookies. Maintaining an international view by describing distinctive treats popular in various regions of the world, and noting that children often dislike candy from elsewhere, the authors cover processes and ingredients and pause for quick visits to a jelly-bean factory, a chocolatier, and a private kitchen before finishing with a mouthwatering trip to a candy store. Cartoon illustrations of people making or eating sugary goodies add colorful visual notes to this lively\b alternative to Ruth Freeman Swain's more piecemeal How Sweet It Is! (2003). --John Peters Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-This history of things sweet and sugary is a yummy feast. The prose is chatty and inviting. Color cartoon illustrations show multiethnic people in the process of making or enjoying everything from honey to ice cream to cotton candy (called candy floss here) to jelly beans and chocolate. A time line from around 6000 B.C.E. through 2006 runs along the bottom of the pages. Throughout the time line, tooth decay and other sugar-related problems are mentioned. For example, in England in 1674, a physician connected sugar consumption to diabetes. And in 1978, in the U.S., an accused murderer used the "Twinkie defense" at his murder trial-he did it because of too much sugar. There are great explanations of such matters as the history of honey production and the chemistry of sugar. The absence of an index is a drawback for reports. Another sweet history of candy is Ruth Freeman Swain's How Sweet It Is (and Was) (Holiday House, 2003). Sweet! is one tasty treat.-Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Beginning with the biological appeal of sweets, this book moves into subdivided sections on ""primal sweets,"" ""sugar candy,"" chocolate, and ""candy magic."" The lively prose presents solid facts, and cartoon illustrations further enliven the text. A running timeline gives noteworthy international candy-related events and discoveries from 6000 BCE to 2006 CE. Although references are missing, an authors' note describes Love and Drake's research. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
