A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking

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if things go wrong in a siege you’ll all die horribly, and in formal weddings the stakes are much higher. 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. One morning, Mona finds a dead body in the bakery and from that point on, her life is completely turned upside down. Oh, there are skeletal zombie horses that double as magpie nests, too (pretty cool, that). And inquisitors who look like constipated vultures (scary, that). And red stuff that isn’t necessarily raspberry filling (a shame, that). A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is written more for young adults/middle age but I still enjoyed this one.

There were two problems here, both of which will vary tremendously depending on the reader. One, the lead is a very timid sort. While she does grow into her magic, I would hesitate to say she grows significantly into her personhood power. While that is entirely alright, the mileage one gets out of this may vary. She's a young, rule-follower, trusting sort of young person, and that's fine. Her emotional breakdowns are in line with this persona, as are her worries. And I kind of applaud Kingfisher for trying to tell a story about someone who doesn't want to be a hero, and who doesn't get powered-up and stomp all over the story. But. But not my favorite kind of lead character. I might have liked her better if I was ten.Mona’s understanding that the adults who should have figured this out were collectively asleep at the switch and that saving the city shouldn't be up to her but is anyway is something that Harry Potter fanfiction handles better than the original stories. The situation shouldn’t have been allowed to get so far off the rails that a 14-year-old is not just their best but their only hope. After all, when Leia talks about Obi-Wan being her “only hope” at least her expectations are fixed on a grown up. I don’t even care about pastries, but think I may sell my soul for a freshly baked sweet bun right now. A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is whimsical and dark and imaginative and fantastic. It gets my enthusiastic recommendation for readers both young and old. It's a decent Kingfisher, which means the characterization feels solid. There's a few standard characters rolled in (pushy, loving aunt, a thief) as well as some intriguing ones (the uncle, the horse witch). It's ethics and world-building are probably geared a little simply compared to some of her other works, which may be why it feels a little younger. Still, it's a Kingfisher, and the writing is occasionally quite perfect. YA Buddy Readers'...: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher -- Starting July 12th 2023

See what I mean? Such utter disrespect for my brave little ferocious warriors is quite unacceptable, if you ask me. Where the fish is PETA when you need them, anyway? The obvious is the whole 14-year-old saves the city thing that makes it YA. Mona is young. She’s still, to some extent, figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up, although her magic has driven her further down that path than most. But she’s also at an age where she’s unsure of herself and her future in so many different ways. She sees herself as young, and small, and weak. She sees her magic as not powerful at all or even all that useful. It’s handy in her aunt’s bakery, where she works, but it’s not otherwise big or showy. And neither, honestly, is she. I USED MY LIBRARY TO PROCURE THIS BOOK...THEN I WENT OUT AND BOUGHT ONE. A YA NOVEL ABOUT A TEEN. AND IT ***just*** WON A 2021 LOCUS AWARD!! 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.The story is about a murder mystery, there are dark echoes of totalitarianism and ethnic cleansing (all wizards either have to leave town or are murdered), and finally there's an army threatening the city while its usual defenders are away. And our heroine has only bread magic and sourdough. Can you defend a city with that? I think this book is meant for kids, but kids who are totally down with the original Grimm's fairytales. Bad things happen here, but there are also great and relatable lessons. The characters are enjoyable, the plot is fairly straight forward, so it's really the morals and the fun writing that carry this one I think. 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. One of the biggest charms of Kingfisher’s writing is the combination of the fantastical with the everyday, often in ways you completely don’t expect. Having a magical talent that only works with baked goods has got to be one of the best ways to highlight this skill, because you don’t get much more everyday than the act of mixing flour and waiting for bread to rise.

It felt like Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City because to a certain extent Mona and Orhan are in the same position. Their city has been betrayed from within – although not for the same reasons. Both of them are woefully underqualified for the role of city savior. Orhan because he’s a despised non-native of the city and Mona because she’s a despised – or at least feared – magic user. And she’s only 14.I love that we grapple with the injustice of powerless groups having to be the ones who have to fix the mistakes of the empowered. Highly recommend if you are looking for a light, fun read with a comedic touch. It's a middle grade story, but one that someone at any age could enjoy.

When you're different, even just a little different, even in a way that people can't see, you like to know that people in power won't judge you for it. Currently in Riverbraid, wizards are missing or becoming dead. There's a powerful assassin that's killing wizards and the magical community is leaving the city or going into hiding.stars. After even more time thinking about it, I still LOVE this book, but I'm not sure if it'll be as rereadable as the other books on the 7 stars list. Rereadability is an important factor.