A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking, by T. King Fisher, is about a fourteen year old baker who comes to work and finds a dead body in the bakery. Not a spoiler - it is in the first sentence of the book. The book is a young adult fantasy novel. But somewhat a mixture of darkness, and humor, and reality. Young and old readers will enjoy it. From the world building, the characters, and the twisting, turning plot. A mixture of mystery and politics, magic and common sense, happiness and sadness. Yes, I cried at the end of the Dead Horse War. I can see why it is used in many a class room. Five out of five.

Wonderful characters, decent story, fun world and loved the idea of magic in it. With that said, the main character is whiny (she is a fourteen year old girl, I know) and a lot of parts in the book go on too long with her complaining about something or other and nothing happening. Otherwise I greatly enjoyed it.

This story is a lot of fun, but has some deeper themes as well.It is a young adult story, perhaps a bit edgier than Harry Potter, but not quite as edgy as the Hunger Games. Most of the edginess comes from the active participation of the two young protagonists in death and war. (The story, after all opens with the line “There was a dead girl in my aunt’s bakery”.)For readers familiar with the authors’ other works, this story is not as nearly as disquieting as “Minor Mage”. In this story the author has the unconditional support of her aunt, which gives a sense that the adults are (at least at some level) trying to help solve the problems. In “Minor Mage”, the young wizard is thrown out on his own to solve the town’s problems.Probably the best part of this story is the character development of the non-human (and non-verbal) characters, all of which play a significant role in the climax of the story. For example, “Bob”, (the sourdough starter) has a rather well-developed personality (particularly for bread dough) and one of the highlights of the story is Bob being weaponized against the invading army. Similarly, Mona’s “gingerbread man” (the one who sits on her shoulder and hides in her hair) assumes a leadership role in managing a team of guerilla gingerbread men (who are released the night before the invasion to harass the invaders). Last, but certainly not least, the giant gingerbread golems (which, admittedly don’t have nearly as much personality as either “Bob” or the “gingerbread man”) are valiant warriors, helping to protect the city against the invading army.A key aspect of the story is perhaps best described by the Teddy Roosevelt quote, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” The protagonist (Mona) is NOT a superhero. She is not even a hero. She is a minor wizard, making a living doing useful things, and is suddenly thrust into the flow of great events. She has a choice between “doing what she can” (even though it is clearly not going to be enough) or giving up and becoming a victim. Well, she does what she can, and she does it well. She takes her limited magical skills and creatively expands them in a multiplicity of ways. In doing so, her determination inspires another wizard (who does have a superhero talent) to STOP being a victim and deliver the final fatal blow against the invaders.As with many of the author’s stories, there is a continual thread of humor woven throughout the book. However, in this book (unlike “The Clocktaur Wars” or “Swordheart”) the humor is less driven by the banter between characters and more driven by the situations. For a couple of examples? When Mona starts a group of gingerbread men dancing at the beginning of the book, they are dancing “a very respectable hornpipe”. She muses about an earlier batch of gingerbread men that “performed a decidedly lewd little number” and that “they had to add a lot of vanilla to settle them down”. She describes Lord Ethan entirely in terms of bakery analogies (“hair the color of melted butter” and “dark eyes like cinnamon”). When Knackering Molly meets up with her, the encounter is described where Mona “stared into the face of a dead horse and nearly fainted with relief”. Later in the story is the garderobe scene – where Mona and Spindle make contact with the Duchess by climbing up the inside of the garderobe (and where Mona gets stuck at the top and needs to be pulled out). (If you don’t know what a garderobe is – well – reading the book is a good education …). There IS much more humor like this, but I’ll stop here …As an odd aside, the story reminds me a LOT of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated movies, most specifically “Kiki’s Delivery Service”. Both stories are about young women with magical powers facing new challenges as young adults. (Both also happen to feature a bakery, by the way …)

A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking made me remember that the most fun about bookstores is that moment in the aisle between shelves when you meet a stranger who either asks you for a book or asks you if you like the one that you're reading. Perhaps they stare at the book cover too long, trying to read the title and author as you clutch it protectively. Or perhaps you agree to exchange the names of favorite authors. All that leading into the fact that I would love to be in a bookstore (can't, the pandemic and all that), giving someone the lowdown on T. Kingfisher.Imagine, if you will, a wizard whose weapon is bread. The idea of saving the world with bread as your weapon, as opposed to metal, wood, stone, water, etc., seems a bit ludicrous. And yet, leavened about with singular wit, this book’s premise is a fourteen-year-old with a penchant for fish-eating sourdough is up for saving the world.There may be gingerbread men involved. I couldn’t say. But I can say If you haven’t read T. Kingfisher, you really need to grab this book. And while I’ve read some of her other books, I think I’ll point uninitiated readers toward A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking. It’s definitely my favorite so far simply because of the effortless wit and the totally believable insanity of saving the world with bread. You’ll never look at those carbs the same way again.The world is engrossing, the characters are not just engaging but downright witty. I kept finding myself laughing over the throwaway one-liners and inner musings of various characters. Altogether way too much fun and about to be re-read.As the parent of kiddos with autism, there are causes near and dear to my heart. Let Amazon donate to your favorite charity! Use Amazon Smile (smile.amazon.com) when you order and Amazon will donate to the charity of your choice when you make a qualifying purchase. Check out how Amazon Smile works at https://smile.amazon.com/gp/chpf/about/ref=smi_se_rspo_laas_aas. My shopping is donating to my favorite charity, Canines for Independence at no cost to me. Awesome!

Saw this advertised on Facebook and was intrigued. It was well worth the read and I will never look at sourdough starter the same! Now I think I'll go make some gingerbread men.

I like the strait forward fantasy journey and the inventive surprising problem solving.Mona and Spindle were a delightful pair and the adults weren’t stupid or absent. So refreshing.

Seems like a light-hearted about a wizard baker girl who makes cookies dance and then you hit by all the layers about how fear and propaganda can hurt innocent people for who they didn't chose to be. A lot of wisdom, laughter and some tears that I recommend in a heartbeat!

That's how a fantasy book should be:A fresh premise, well worked out in the novel, lovable main character and interesting side characters, and an satisfying ending, not too sweet, but good.

Lovely book with a unique concept. Read in one sitting.Highly recommend. Mona, spindle and all characters were so interesting! Do read.

T Kingfisher's books are like a hug - a dark, sometimes frightening hug, but with characters that you can't help falling in love with, just a little bit. I mean, there's feisty Bob, the sourdough starter, just as one example!Beginning with a dead body in a bakery, the story gets better with every page. The magic seeps through, until you are as enchanted as a dancing gingerbread man. I loved every moment of this book - it was perfect for a cold winter's weekend snuggled up on the sofa! Highly recommend.