Meet our “sweet” heroine, Halo Nightly, also known as Princess Candy. In this complete comics collection of the Princess Candy series, we have four separate books compiled into one volume. We follow Halo, whose adventure begins when her Aunt Pandora gifts her a wooden box full of candies. She’s warned to use them wisely, and we soon see why. She discovers that each different flavor of candy give her distinct, and temporary, superpowers, which she uses to tackle her unfair teacher and treacherous classmates.
“Sugar Hero” is the introductory story that explains Halo Nightly’s character and background, thus setting up all of the following comics in the series. In this first story she faces her nemesis classmate, Doozie Hiss’s magical hair.
In “The Marshmallow Mermaid,” marshmallows and humans have started disappearing from the school’s swimming pool. Halo uses her magical candy, wit, and stealthiness to find the culprit and save Midnight Elementary School.
Halo partners up with Flora in “The Green Queen of Mean” to write a report about ways to reduce pollution for their teacher, Mr. Slink. Unfortunately, their assignment gets sabotaged, pushing the already extreme environmentalist Flora to her breaking point. Now, Halo has to contend with the Green Queen.
In “The Evil Echo,” Halo’s relationship with Cody is put to the test when Echo gets jealous of the attention Cody pays to Halo. Echo decides to do something about it by disguising herself as Halo and wreaking havoc on the entire campus, but things turn dangerous when Halo discovers that her candy collection has been stolen.
American illustrator Crowther uses a vibrant color palette that demands your attention. This cute and uncomplicated artistic style is very appealing to young readers. This book just looks like it would be fun to read. Fantastic gusts of wind, waves of water, and exciting action words fill the panels along with a lot of seriously colorful hair styles.
This is the kind of book that is an easy recommendation to make to reluctant readers, especially girls who like princesses and candy. The eye popping colors, geometric cartoon nose shapes, and wild hair are enough to catch anyone’s attention. The stories are quick, simple yet engaging, and use basic English that is easy to comprehend. The authors include a cast of characters at the beginning so there is no confusion as to who is who, and biographies of the sour-villains at the end. A glossary, discussion questions, and a write-your-own-stories section with creative writing prompts are nice bonuses at the end for educators as well as young readers.
I’d recommend this comic for elementary and middle school librarians to add to their collections.
Princess Candy: The Complete Comics Collection
By Michael Dahl Scott Nickel
Art by Jeff Crowther
ISBN: 9781496587312
Capstone Press, 2020
Publisher Age Rating: 8-12
Series ISBNS and Order
Title Details and Representation
NFNT Age Recommendation: Easy Readers (5-9), Middle Grade (7-11)
