IF I OWNED A CANDY FACTORY

. . . I would invite each of my friends to come for a carload of his favorite kind on his birthday. ""After all my friends had taken their candy home -- I would put a big sign on my factory (WELCOME) and I would invite all the children in the whole world to come. . . and help themselves to candy -- if I owned a candy factory."" James Walker Stevenson was eight when he dreamed this impossible dream as the ingenuous ending attests. His father, who drew the laconic illustrations, projects the contrast between diminuitive children and huge factory, between the multicolored splendor of the candy and the drabness of the world at large. Nothing to chew on but, like confectionery sugar, a fleeting satisfaction.