Review: The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
T. Kingfisher
Argyll Productions
Published July 21, 2020

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About The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

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…

My Review

I heard about this book from Mara at BooksLikeWhoa on YouTube. I can’t remember which video in which she talks about this book, but she doesn’t often review middle grade, and she liked this one, so I knew I needed to try it. I’ve also really wanted to read something by T. Kingfisher since I hear so many positive things about her books. I think this was a great place for me to start, since I had a great time with this book.

There’s something really special about fantasy that doesn’t take itself too seriously and kind of makes fun of some of the fantasy tropes. In this case, this story is about a girl who has a magical affinity for bread. She can make gingerbread men dance. She can convince the baguette of her enemies to be so stale it’s a brick. And she’s somehow the only person who can stop a serial killer.

I loved the goofiness of some of the moments in the book. Mona is fourteen, and still feels young and awkward. She sometimes makes analogies and then says funny things that acknowledge the hyperbole of her analogy. It’s a really playful book. I also loved the way that Mona grows throughout the story. She finds courage and confidence in her abilities, and she builds relationships with other characters.

WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING is a quirky, fun read that will appeal to fantasy lovers looking for a laugh. I could see fans of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON by Cressida Cowell enjoying this a lot.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
I don’t remember character descriptions that included race details.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to use magic. One character can reanimate dead horses and their bones.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. In the opening scene, Mona finds a girl on the floor of the bakery who has been murdered. Mona’s sourdough starter, Bob, has become carnivorous, or so the rat skeletons she found in the basement seem to indicate. Someone attacks Mona more than once. Brief descriptions of a people group who burn villages to the ground before moving on to a new place to burn. A few scenes describe a battle.

Drug Content
Mona mentions that once, as a child, she and a boy stole a bottle of sacrificial wine and drank it. This made them both really sick.

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