Trying something new is most definitely not a piece of cake for bread-baking dragon Ember in The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake, the appetizing, enchanting follow-up to Devin Elle Kurtz's The Bakery Dragon.
According to Beatrice the baker, Ember is a "natural" at baking bread ("warm, toasty, tasty gold"). Ember's dragon friends, his "trusty panel of food critics," also praise his talent, preferring to hoard and gobble mountains of Ember's bread rather than steal gold. When Beatrice leaves Ember in charge while she delivers orders, Princess Turnip arrives with a "very VERY VERY important request" from the queen of the vegetable fairies: a birthday cake for her party in two days. Unfamiliar with "birthday cake" bread, Ember's repeated attempts to bake it leave him defeated--"Maybe he wasn't a natural baker after all." Turnip, however, has a solution: "What you lack is NOT the ability... but the RECIPE." After a trip to the library, the pair successfully bake a two-tiered cake, and Ember's spirits rise "like dough in the oven." Beatrice returns to an emboldened Ember, who confidently practices baking cakes because "even a natural baker needs a recipe to learn something new."
Kurtz's signature style of bathing digital illustrations in light creates mounds of glittering golden baked goods and evokes a warm, cozy fantasy world. Details such as Beatrice's notes around the bakery, the thematic titles of library books ("Baking with Pixie Dust"), and the vegetable fairies' gourd city skillfully build a world with the ability to continue expanding. Strategic vignettes of Ember's expressions are likely to evoke empathy, and his eventual success may remind readers to seek help when needed. --Cristina Iannarino, children's book buyer, Books on the Square, Providence, RI.