Trick or Treat (or Book?): 6 Candy-Themed Reads for Halloween

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
Charlie Bucket’s life is anything but fortunate. But a stroke of good luck lands him the fifth and final golden ticket for a tour of Willy Wonka’s mysterious chocolate factory. Throughout the experience, Charlie’s kindness and gratitude stand out in stark contrast to the bratty behavior of his peers on the tour, whose greedy and selfish natures prove to be their downfall. In the end, Charlie shows that nice guys can finish first, and he is rewarded in the sweetest way possible.

The Candymakers, by Wendy Mass
You could think of this as a 21st-century take on Dahl’s classic tale. It tells the stories of four children chosen to compete in a national competition to create the tastiest and most original new candy. Candymaker’s son Logan, all-business Philip, offbeat Miles, and cheerful Daisy start off as competitors and wind up as friends who band together to protect what matters to them. They learn that everyone struggles with something, and that those struggles can be made easier when you’re surrounded by people who know your secrets—as well as some pretty tasty treats.

The Chocolate Touch, by Patrick Skene Catling
In this riff on the story of King Midas, young John Midas eats a seemingly ordinary but magical piece of chocolate and winds up with the power to turn anything that touches his lips into chocolate. It seems too good to be true for this chocolate lover—what’s not to love about chocolate toothpaste and chocolate bacon and eggs? But when he turns his mother into a chocolate statue, John learns that you can have too much of a good thing.

Thea Stilton and the Chocolate Sabotage, by Thea Stilton
Strange things are afoot at the Cocoa Loco chocolate factory, but five crafty mouselets are on the case in this sweet installment in the Geronimo Stilton: Thea Series. Colorful illustrations, fun font choices to highlight certain words, and clever mouse-themed word play (they squeak instead of speak and use things like a SnoutBook and a MousePad along the way) help keep kids grinning as they work to solve the mystery and discover the culprit trying to keep the factory from winning the Chocolate Cup.

Clara the Chocolate Fairy, by Daisy Meadows
Jack Frost has stolen the magic charms that belong to the Sugar and Spice Fairies, and he’s using them to build a castle made of candy and treats. If the fairies don’t get their charms back, desserts won’t taste as good anymore, and Fairyland’s Treat Day will be ruined. In this book that’s part of the Rainbow Magic series, best friends Kirsty and Rachel help Clara the Chocolate Fairy recover her charm and get things back to normal at the Candy Land factory. And if this story tickles your kid’s sweet tooth, other books in the series focus on things like ice cream, cupcakes, and lollipops.

The Candy Shop War, by Brandon Mull
In this first book in a trilogy, four friends enter the world of the Sweet Tooth Ice Cream & Candy Shoppe, where the sweets are anything but normal. Here rock candy can make you weightless and chocolate offers the power of disguise. But the four friends soon find themselves suspicious about the shop’s owner and her quest for a magical treasure that could cause problems in the wrong hands—and she’s not the only one on the hunt for it! So they set out to find it before anyone else does.