As someone who isn’t a fan of the orange, yellow, and white-​striped confections, I found myself completely won over by a charming throng of candy corn creatures. These rollicking fellows with their antics and liveliness greatly enhance Jonathan Fenske’s rhyming picture book, Candy Corn Christmas. Illustrations tinged with subversive humor pulled this reader into a sharply-​drawn world and storyline that kept me at the edge of my seat.

Fenske’s line art candy corns are a standout in each cleanly-​rendered, digitally-​painted page. The candy corns themselves are given active and expressive personalities which make them easy to follow. Candy corns all look alike, right? So, the artist did well to give these guys expressive faces and distinguishing features with different types of mouths and teeth, googly eyes with eyebrows and, in some cases, costume pieces. Look for the candy corn wearing the green elf hat and one donning a Canadian maple leaf flag.

The use of line art as a narrative device is a wise artist choice providing readers a chance to appreciate candy corns as individual characters. This is especially important given that the pace of the story moves so quickly that there’s a risk of noticing gags more than caring about the characters themselves. 

Line art highlights details such as candy corns feeling bored and stale around an old familiar pumpkin pail, and candy corns showing interest in the sound of singing and bells coming from another room. When the candy corns invade the Christmas confections’ space, Fenske’s use of line art successfully shows displeasure and worry emanating from the sugar plums, chocolate log, and candy cane.

**Spoiler alert in the next paragraph!**

Tensions rise when Santa shows up and he does the unthinkable, taking an actual bite (though it’s mentioned as a nibble) from a candy corn. The artist’s repetition of layout and close-​up action serves to increase story tension plus provide some comic relief. There’s Santa down on the ground examining the band of candy corns right before an extreme close up of Santa bringing a candy corn to his mouth. Then there’s another page showing Santa standing next to the candy corns (in the same line up as before) with one of them saying “My baby,” followed by a page showing a smiling, carefree Santa holding a traumatized, gooey candy corn in his palm. These pages will render this book less suitable for younger kids. While the graphic details surprised and cracked me up as an adult, I welcomed the relief of knowing that the candy corn did survive.

As mentioned earlier, this book contains both funny and subversive elements fueled by illustrations that will hold reader interest up to the very end. An entertaining book filled with details and visual intrigue for the older picture book set, pre‑K, and above.