Ursula Vernon Awards". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on July 2, 2021 . Retrieved August 4, 2021.

Boxer, Sarah (August 17, 2005). "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Comics Escape a Paper Box, and Electronic Questions Pop Out". The New York Times . Retrieved March 6, 2011. 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. I fully admit that I bought this one for the title. Not that the stabbity-stabbity gingerbread man on the cover isn’t adorable, but it was definitely the title that got me. And I’m so very glad that it did. I also wondered whether this was really YA or whether it was one of those cases where something got called YA because it was fantasy. That doesn’t happen as much as it used to, but it definitely does still happen. 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… A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher – eBook Details locusmag (April 12, 2021). "Ursula Vernon: Shiny New Idea". Locus Online . Retrieved April 14, 2021.Magic, gingerbread, warm laughter and feels…this actually turned out to be a perfect holiday read! The protagonist of A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is Mona, a fourteen-year-old baker’s assistant with a minor gift that only works on bread dough. It’s a humble but comfortable existence working at her Aunt Tabitha’s bakery, and Mona is happy enough just to be able to help out.

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is, like Minor Mage and Summer in Orcus, somewhat darker than may be the norm for middle grade fantasies. While people (even good ones!) die and those adults who should be in charge are fallible, this is still ultimately an uplifting and empowering tale. It’s about people who don’t really want to be heroes — who shouldn’t even have to be heroes — but still rise to the occasion when others have failed, because they’re needed. Played with. The Duchess is aware that things are going badly in her city, but the politics are such that she is scared to try to fix it. Mona eventually decides that the Duchess is probably just not very suited to ruling, since she only got the position by having the right parents. Lord Ethan, meanwhile, is only useless because he's already got his hands full trying to hold off the impending invasion. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is a novel by T. Kingfisher. It won the 2021 Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, as well as the Lodestar Award.Her talent is in convincing dough that it wants to do what SHE wants it to do, so it rises properly and it doesn’t burn. And she can make gingerbread men dance – even if she can’t control what kind of dance they do. Mona’s power has definite limits that she has to work within to make it work at all.

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..." P.P.S. I really appreciated the author's thoughts on heroes. That gave me something to think about. Kind of supplemental to Mr. Roger's advice to look for the helpers maybe? Where Harry Potter comes in, of course, is that Mona is just 14 and she’s expected to save the city. Which is ridiculous and insane and she’s very aware of the fact that there are lots of adults who weren’t adulting very well at all. It’s up to her and it just plain shouldn’t be. But it still is. Because even if she CAN manage to get better adults it’s not going to happen in time to save the city. So it’s all up to her, no matter how much she downright KNOWS that she is in over her head.If this sounds like the plot of every other YA fantasy novel, it isn’t. Firstly, the way Mona uses her supposedly small gift to protect herself and her allies is both unique and unnerving; the author’s experience writing horror stories really shows through, as does her attention to detail. Anyone who owns a sourdough starter knows how uncanny it can be to hear this faceless living mass bubbling in a jar. Now imagine if it could ooze around on its own, and eat other things the way it eats flour and water, like your enemy’s face, for example. This creature exists in the novel as Mona’s familiar. She calls it Bob. 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. 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. Nebula Rules". Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. October 2011. Archived from the original on July 1, 2011 . Retrieved December 12, 2011. 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.”