a wizard's guide to defensive baking t kingfisher

I don't think I've ever listened to so many chapters about battle and preparation for battle in a middle grade book as I did in this one. And face the enemy she does - with bread! Who knew bread could have so many uses in battle? With a side-kick named Bob (yeast starter), a gingerbread man familiar, and a newfound belief and understanding of her talents she almost single-handedly helps win a war/battle. It doesn't take long before she learns there is a growing threat that magicas like her are facing in the city-state and while most magical individuals leave (or are killed), Mona soon finds herself in the unenviable position of having to stand-up and fight against the enemy. And although this is considered minor magic, she still gets accused of the murder solely because she is a wizard.

It all starts when Mona discovers a dead body in their bakery. The author must have had a blast writing this because it shows. I mean, American author, American narrator - why go England-English?Īh! This was so cute and creative. I’m not a young adult, or even an older child, so I’m not the target audience here, and I’m not criticising the story - it’s good, the characters are utterly engaging, the lesson that grown ups can’t always fix things is well learnt, there’s a battle at the end that is rather bloodless (lots of whacking and hitting), and, SPOILER just in case these things bother you, someone you get to know as the book progresses dies. I thought I’ d get used to it, but I didn’t, and it nagged at me all the way through. Mona is a baker, an ordinary girl, and no one else from her family, or the others we meet that she knows, speak that way. I didn’t get why Mona, raised from a young age by her aunt and uncle, spoke so differently to them, and far more like the ruling classes. Others characters came from all over, a bit of Irish, a bit of Australian, a bit of generic-rustic-yokel (think Sam Gamgee in the LotR films), and sometimes it was all a bit of a blend. The narration, and Mona, are read in a rather cut-glass RP (received pronunciation) that, to be fair, the narrator holds well, but to my UK-English ears it sounded a bit carefully over-annunciated. However, I was surprised to hear it read in UK English, by an American narrator. It takes a while to get going and some of the events that transpire are a tad obvious, and some I thought obvious didn’t happen, so what do I know?! The latter part did pick up pace and it then rattled along to a rather good conclusion.

This isn’t a deep book - it’s heroine is 14, and it’s told entirely from her perspective, but she’s an engaging young thing who ends up having to deal with far, far more than you should at that, or any, age. Engaging characters, bit slow to get going

A wizard's guide to defensive baking t kingfisher