A WIZARD'S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING
AUTHOR:
T. Kingfisher
GENRE:
Fantasy
AGE:
12+
RATING:
4/5 Stars
REVIEW:
As much as I love epic fantasy novels full of twists, tears, and tension, sometimes a cozy, simple fantasy is all you need. A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is not the most gripping story, but it’s charming, funny, and really unique. I’ve never read a book with a more whimsical approach to magic, and I’ve definitely never read anything that includes nods to The Gingerbread Man.
The main character, fourteen-year-old Mona, is a “magicker” whose special abilities lie in baking. She can make cookies come to life and bread will rise perfectly at her command. When she was first discovering her abilities she even created Bob—a sourdough starter who has taken over the basement, eats rats, and is the true hero of this story. (I’m kidding. But I loved Bob and he actually had a very important role to play in the climax.)
The plot is a bit political—governments, wars, foreign nations and whatnot all played a part. These kinds of plots are usually not my favorite, but they can be perfectly fine if they are merely the stage on which the ideas, prose, and characters stand. That was the case with A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking. I didn’t read it for the plot. I read it for the magic, the wit, and the colorful characters—all of which make this story satisfactory indeed.
WARNINGS:
Mild language // Murder // Magic that animates dead horses (whimsical, not intended to be gothic or disturbing)
TAKEAWAYS:
Everybody should read a book which includes a carnivorous sourdough starter named Bob. Everybody. At least once.
The Blurb
Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance.
But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…
About the Author
T. Kingfisher is the vaguely absurd pen-name of Ursula Vernon. In another life, she writes children's books and weird comics, and has won the Hugo, Sequoyah, and Ursa Major awards, as well as a half-dozen Junior Library Guild selections.
This is the name she uses when writing things for grown-ups.
When she is not writing, she is probably out in the garden, trying to make eye contact with butterflies.
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