A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

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It certainly doesn't hurt anyone to be told fictionally that evil should not ultimately succeed, that they can't leave it for others to fight, good people do die, and that, by inference, the hero, as well as the reader will have to work hard to defeat their own particular evil/s. Mona’s bread magic may not seem like it’s good for much but the message here is that, no matter how insignificant you may feel, there is greatness in everyone. And although this is considered minor magic, she still gets accused of the murder solely because she is a wizard.

Oh, and Mona is an “ apprentice baker and half-baked wizard of dough,” which doesn’t sound nearly as titillating as “nefarious breeder of murderous crustaceans” but is actually quite very scrumptious indeed. Kids should not be saving the world and fixing mistakes of careless adults, and yet sometimes life does not care what you think, and adults make stupid choices and let you down — even if you are young and careful and try your best to be sensible and follow the rules.stars, almost 5, and I can very much recommend it, especially as a winter holiday read: there's lots of yummy baking going on and despite of its dark themes, it always manages to maintain a warm and lighthearted tone. The world's largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls.

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.

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking won the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction for Best Young Adult Novel of 2020, [1] the 2021 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, [2] the 2021 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book, [3] the 2021 Dragon Award for Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel, [4] and the 2021 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature. 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. Locus commended Vernon's "ability to craft engagingly quirky characters", and her portrayal of "a Pratchettian world where magic makes for a mostly amusing background, except when it doesn't.