The Candy Smash (The Lemonade War Series)

After the third book, my 10 year-old daughter was a bit hesitant to start this fourth installment in the series. Thankfully, the author seems to have returned to the formula that made the first and second books so fun to read. This time Valentine's Day is fast approaching and Jessie is looking for the front page story for her newspaper. Evan is still struggling in school, but is learning that he enjoys (and is quite good at) poetry. Mysterious candy hearts appear with personalized messages for each student in their 4th grade class, much to the teacher's dismay and the children's delight. The author uses Jessie's search for her story to incorporate news terms into the book, and poetry discussions in class to explain poetry concepts. Overall, this is a great addition to the series and my 4th grader loved it.

My pre-teen daughter read Candy Smash after reading Lemonade War. She was a big fan of the first book and found Candy Smash fun and interesting but not as good as the prior book. She said that the plot was unique, and it was still the type of book that she looked forward to continue reading.

She felt that Candy Smash wouldn't make as much sense without reading Lemonade War first and recommends that readers go in that order.

I can't recommend this highly enough for young readers in middle school. The writing is definitely on their level, not too advanced nor written down, but right on 4th-6th grade ground. There's much about Valentine's day and a youngster's concept of what it's all about. And there's a lot about poetry, so this book is educational, but don't tell your kids that it is. They will learn from it and will definitely love the reading experience.

This is soooo good. It really grabs you and never lets go. Until.......... They tell you who did a secret deed!! I am so glad that I have a series that I enjoy. I'm also happy about that I'm on the fourth book. You should also try...The lemonade war, The lemonade crime, The bell bandit, The candy smash, and The magic trap, which I am about to read. I hope you love this book it deserves 5 stars and remember, Trust a 9 year old.

Our 4th grade daughter is an avid reader and blazed through this in about a day and a half.

She said that this was the fourth of the series, but that she didn't make a difference, though she now wants to read the other three books.

She liked it and said she would recommend it to her friends. "It's a mystery with a touch of romance, so girls will probably like it more than boys"

My daughter continues to love this series. She likes that the POV switches from the boys to the girls and she enjoys the main characters in this series. This is a funny series with a good mystery. My daughter loved that personalized candy hearts were being left in the kids' desk but the teacher wouldn't let them be eaten until they found out who was leaving them. Talk about great motivation. I know my daughter will continue to request this series as the author write more books. This is also a series that we give as birthday gifts.

If you're a fourth grade teacher, your class will enjoy this book from The Lemonade War Series. It is full of quality poetry, as well as appropriate vocabulary words at the beginning of each chapter that go along with poetry. If you were to read this around Valentine's Day it would be a perfect read aloud! There are some excellent ideas to jump start poetry writing with your class.

I liked this book because you knew what was going to happen next, but then the story twisted around! This book is great if you like mysteries accruing in the middle of the book! I would recommend this book to 3rd to 5th graders.