Young Mona has a way with bread. She can keep it from burning, or make it taste fresher (or staler, if need be.) She can even make gingerbread men dance the can-can. 'Cause she's a wizard, you see. A 14-year-old wizard who's about to have her life turned upside-down.

YA Buddy Readers'...: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher -- Starting July 12th 2023 I don’t even care about pastries, but think I may sell my soul for a freshly baked sweet bun right now. Well... I have this... thing". Saying I have a homicidal sourdough starter sounded much too bizarre.” You expect heroes to survive terrible things. If you give them a medal, then you don't ever have to ask why the terrible thing happened in the first place. Or try to fix it.” She wasn’t stupid, though. There was a sharp, glittering intelligence inside the insanity that had learned early on that it was much easier to get away with being insane if you were also useful and had a little bit of money, and if people were just a little bit scared of you.”but hey, once a baker, always a baker. If I was going to get thrown in the dungeon, at least I was going to leave a trail of quality pastries behind me.” I loved the MC Mona and and her bread making abilities, Spindle and his thieving abilities. Aunt Tabitha and her bakery. Let’s just say there are great characters, awesome creatures and stuff, so read it 😉 It was amazing. Terror cannot actually stand up to a full bladder. I was about to be hauled up on murder charges, and all I could think about was oh god I have to go so baaaaad…” But one day, her world is turned upside down when she comes in to find a dead body on the floor. Worse, she becomes the main suspect in the murder case. Of course, it doesn’t help that the city’s authorities aren’t exactly friendly towards wizards, even those who aren’t considered very powerful. This has emboldened a certain assassin, who is stalking the streets preying on magic users. Soon every wizard is fleeing the city, including poor Mona who has been caught up in the chaos.

The magic in A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is delightful. Just take a look at the cover with that aggressive little gingerbread man waving a knife. And he is the least thing our fourteen year old magician dreams up when asked to defend her whole town from flesh eating savages. Her magic lies in baking so her defenses range from angry gingerbread men, through giant, bread golems to a carnivorous sourdough starter called Bob. You expect heroes to survive terrible things. If you give them a medal, then you don’t ever have to ask why the terrible thing happened in the first place. Or try to fix it.” She thinks I’m a hero,” I said, when the silence had stretched out. “But I shouldn’t have had to do any of it. There should have been so many grown-ups who should have fixed things before it got down to me and Spindle. It doesn’t make you a hero just because everybody else didn’t do their job.” But I did love that at fourteen, Mona is still basically a kid, with young (and snarky) voice and zero contamination with romance that seems to plague so many books aimed at the youngsters. We have our kids grow up too fast in stories, and although Mona does a fair bit of this given the responsibilities thrust upon her, I love that in the end she’s still a kid at heart. One day, while 14-year-old wizard Mona is working in her aunt Tabatha's bakery, she finds a dead girl on the kitchen floor. But that is just the start of her troubles because there is a killer in the city and this assassin seems to be targeting magicas - minor ones like Mona. So the holy water creating zombie frogs really is the least of her problems.

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. I squeezed my eyes shut - it was going to be a cold bright pain, I just knew it, and then I was going to die, and that would be the end of a bread wizard named Mona who just wanted to make really good sourdough and muffins and not get messed up with assassins and politics and - C’mon, Bob..." I said, using sugary tones you’d use to approach an unpredictable animal. "C'mon. I’ve got some nice flour for you..." The story is told through Mona's perspective, where she injects wit and humor into everything. But I also loved how she realized and discussed with herself that this should have been completely handled by the adults. It should never have come down to a kid like her having to be the one to make people aware of the dangers against the magicas or be forced to save the day. The adults should have been, well...the adults should have been the adults. They should have realized what was going on and put a stop to it. of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

The great wizards, the magi that serve the Duchess, they can throw fireballs around or rip mountains out of the earth, heal the dying, turn lead into gold. Me, I can turn flour and yeast into tasty bread, on a good day. And occasionally make carnivorous sourdough starters.” You expect heroes to survive terrible things. If you give them a medal, then you don’t ever have to ask why the terrible thing happened in the first place. Or try to fix it.if things go wrong in a siege you’ll all die horribly, and in formal weddings the stakes are much higher. Let’s see, what else? The story is abominably fluffy at times, but it is quite marvellously darkly dark for the most part. And what do we say to that? Why, YUM, of course. The villains are magnificently villainous, too. So YUM again. Talking about appetizing stuff, second-hand breakfasts are regularly on the menu in this book. (And no, you don’t want to know that they’re made of.) There are also super savory and most delectable garderobe expeditions. (No, you don’t want to know about these either.) That’s it for the appetite-stimulating side of this story, I think. Unless you consider people who “ look like the ass end of a seagull” as being particularly mouthwatering, that is. Someone is killing magic folk, and suddenly it's up to Mona to figure out who's doing it, AND why . . .before she turns out to be the next victim. She just needs to keep in mind that in magic, creativity is as important as knowledge. Oh, and, for the record, I don't actually hate YA as a whole that much. (Okay, it may say so on my profile but it just a cunning scheme to deceive my enemies and stuff.) What I do hate quite very much indeed—and with a murderous vengeance—is crap stuff like this, crap stuff like this and crap stuff like this. You’re welcome. I make it no secret, I’m a big fan of T. Kingfisher, another name for Ursula Vernon. It’s true that I’ve been more familiar with her adult horror thus far, but it appears I’m gradually developing a taste for her Young Adult/Middle Grade fantasy as well. There’s something about her style that reminds me very much of the work of Francis Hardinge, another children’s author I regard highly for her imaginative world-building, lovable protagonists, and yes, stories with maybe just a hint of darkness.

In this case, fourteen-year-old Mona’s magic only works on bread or pastries. There are other wizards in the city of Riverbraid but they are similar to Mona with specific abilities or not that powerful at all.That the hope Mona manages to provide involves some very bad gingerbread men, a few very large bread golems and a whole lot of carnivorous sourdough starter is what makes the story so much fun. Which it very definitely is.