A tiny, adorable dragon finds treasure and friendship in an unlikely place in the sweet, luminous picture book The Bakery Dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz (illustrator, Mother of Sharks),
"There's nothing a dragon loves more than gold." The narration opens on a spread of a toddler-sized, horned, red dragon named Ember curled on a pile of golden treasure and peering out at the reader through one shadowed, amber eye. Ember loves gold as much as his larger, townsfolk-robbing peers, but he's too cute to successfully intimidate humans out of their valuables. He watches a flight of larger dragons in a rainbow of hues fly home at sunset laden with treasure, and a glint of gold draws him to the darkening village. Ember finds a splendid, glowing bakery window filled with bread. The kind baker invites the dragon in and introduces him to the magic of baking. "Ember didn't know you could MAKE gold," but he and his dragon brethren love the taste of the "buttery and rich" treasure. Then Ember has a brilliant idea and leads the other dragons back to the bakery, where he masterminds a baking bonanza. In the festive final spread, the villagers gather outside the bakery to share bread and receive their returned valuables, with the implication that loaves have replaced looting.
Kurtz's digital illustrations of gold-filled lairs, cozy bakeries, and the bucolic fantasy landscape are bathed in a warm, comforting light. Her characters have expressive, endearing faces, and her different styles of dragon tend toward the colorful and whimsical rather than the frightening. This cheerful, friendly story of someone small accomplishing something big should resonate with little readers. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager, Allen County Public Library