Lillie and her aunt Mae witness the painstaking hand-operated process of turning sugar into candy threads at John Wharton's Nashville candy store. John encourages the ladies to go to the World's Fair in St. Louis, where he and William Morrison will demonstrate how to produce candy that is "as fine as thread" on their new Electric Candy Machine: "We call it fairy floss," he tells Lillie and Mae. When they finally get to the World's Fair, Lillie and her aunt take in all the sights, including a dazzling array of newfangled gadgets, and when they finally get to John and William's kiosk, Lillie gets to make a batch of fairy floss herself. Ingalls' story, centered on the modernization of cotton candy, is well matched by Blanco's colorful, whimsical, full-page 1904 World's Fair scenes, which pack in plenty of period detail, including clothing, transportation, and images of the historic exhibits. Have cotton candy ready as a follow-up to this dip into the history of a well-loved amusement-park treat.

K-Gr 3Through the actions and dialogue of a fictional young girl named Lillie and her aunt Mae, kids learn about the beginnings of an irresistible American favorite: cotton candy. While visiting John Wharton's candy shop, Lillie and Mae strike up a conversation with him and notice how hard he is working to hand-crank a machine that makes a treat called candy thread. Mr. Wharton tells them that he and his dentist friend, William Morrison, will be showing off a new invention at the upcoming St. Louis World's Fair of 1904: an electric candy-spinner that does all the work and spins the melted sugar into an even finer consistency, which the men have dubbed fairy floss. Lillie and Mae promise to visit the exhibit at the World's Fair, and when they arrive, they find it within the Palace of Electricity, where fascinating modern-day conveniences of the early 1900s were introduced, such as electric coffeemakers, toasters, fans, and typewriters. The author uses a few contemporaneous words and expressions, such as lollapalooza and razzle-dazzle, but the dialogue among the three characters is rather stilted. Blanco's colorful, distinctive, retro illustrations portray the era mostly through the clothing: long skirts and blouses with bows around the collar for the women and girls, and suits for the men, with both sexes donning hats of all kinds. VERDICT A sunny if unsubstantial treatment for additional purchase only.Maggie Chase, Boise State University, ID