Candy war in my brain.

January 28, 2012 4:28 PM

Another lost children's book question. Candy armies converging from all parts of the (world? map?) to fight each other, I think.

This is driving me nuts, and my sister says she does not remember it. It had army men that looked like jelly babies with crazy weapons also made of candy, all marching and converging somewhere to fight each other or something else, maybe. It had rich, textured colors, and was a tall book. It may have had a machine that made the candy armies, or that they all fell into at the end.

I read it or it was read to me between 1974- 1980, so it had to have been written before that, and it might have been british, maybe even a retelling of a real war. However I seem to recall it had an anti-war slant.

Please help. I am beginning to think I hallucinated it. But I know it is real.

posted by vrakatar to writing & language (8 answers total)

I had a book as a child that had Queen Jelly and her Jelly soldiers, and some war involving these. And they ended up melting or something. Could that be it? I think "Queen" was in the title.
posted by lollusc at 4:43 PM on January 28, 2012

And I think the Queen's name was Jeliba or Jellina or something, but I am having no luck googling it at all. (It was Jelly in the non-American sense, btw, so Jell-o to Americans). The soldiers were kind of pear shaped, I think and very bright translucent colours.
posted by lollusc at 4:50 PM on January 28, 2012

Hmmm... There was a book called "The kingdom of Queen Jellina" by Frances Gavin (1981).
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:57 PM on January 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Francis, excuse me.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:58 PM on January 28, 2012

Yes, that's the one we had, but now I'm thinking I might be conflating it with something else about war, because I don't see any armies marching on the front. Sorry, Vrakatar, if I just ended up confusing the matter.
posted by lollusc at 5:00 PM on January 28, 2012

A queen and everyone melting at the end are ringing bells. And the vivid colors. 1981 seems later than I recall but let me see if that Jellina lead bears fruit. Thanks very much- just knowing that some other people remember something even somewhat similar might save me a trip to Bellvue.
posted by vrakatar at 5:07 PM on January 28, 2012

I don't think it was Queen Jellina. I don't remember that many humans, based on the cover image. And I'd remember that weird rabbit logo.

Also, it may have been written in verse.
posted by vrakatar at 5:15 PM on January 28, 2012

Ring any bells?

"M616: Marzipan Pig army
My husband (born 1951) remembers very little about this book. Says he was five? Something about an army and Marzipan pigs?? It is NOT the one written by Russell Hoban."

Source
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:53 PM on January 29, 2012