A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

I had not read cosy fantasy before I decided to give this title a go, and I'm really glad I did. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and such an antidote to the sometimes dark nature of the real world. This book is both funny and original. I love the idea of a baking wizard, whose main skill is making gingerbread men dance, and who has a temperamental sour dough starter called Bob. The plot becomes something of a murder mystery, unravelling secrets about the city where Mona - the main character - lives. In the end, it's up to Mona to… show more.

I loved this book because it combines three of my favorite things—humor, fantasy, and baking. What’s not to like about a wizard whose familiar is a sourdough starter?

There’s a small army of hilarious gingerbread men, to boot. T. Kingfisher manages a weird balance between humor, horror, and heart. Her world, like ours, has some really dark stuff in it, but she has such a deft touch that I felt cozy even during murder, political scapegoating, and siege.

It was a new spin on the Gingerbread Man folktale and one that gave me goosebumps. It has battles, little whisps of magic, and characters I rooted for from start to finish. It made me feel like the characters I write about, the type I want to have a cup of tea with years from now to see where their lives have taken them. 

Mona is a fourteen-year-old wizard with power over bread and other baked goods.

She has a sourdough starter named Bob for a familiar. Do I need to say more?

Well, there’s more. Mona creates animated gingerbread companions, bread golems, and more. It’s a fun and creative and thoroughly entertaining idea. The story can be dark at times, but how can you resist a book with lines like, “Death by sourdough starter. Not a good way to go.”

Mona is 14, a bread wizard, and just found a corpse in her aunt’s bakery. The perpetrator is almost definitely not Bob the Overeager Sourdough Starter, but before Mona has a chance to get to the bottom of all this (except Bob, obviously) she finds herself both accused of murder and targeted by a magic-hating assassin. Assuming she remains both free and alive, her animated bread golems and gingerbread men (and Bob) will have to save a city from an actual army – and its incompetent rulers.

Kingfisher puts “adult” in “young adult” and “spectacular” in “middle grade.” Her publisher… show more.

The title and the sword-wielding gingerbread man on the cover sold me immediately. A fourteen-year-old magicker, who isn’t considered powerful enough to be a real wizard, uses her dough-based powers in her aunt’s bakery to make tough dough fluffy and keep bread from burning. Oh, and telling gingerbread men to dance and making sourdough starter into a quasi-pet named Bob. When she finds a body in the bakery, she gets caught up in larger mysteries and learns how a little baking can save a lot of lives. Plus there are some insightful reflections on why we need heroes. It’s the… show more.