When 12-year-old Bee can't stand another minute of her unkind foster parents, she escapes. On the run in Aradyn, out of her mind with hunger, the "skinny, raggedy child" steals a sweet roll from a bakery in the town of Zeewal, and with that one desperate act, her life is forever changed. The baker, Master Bouts, is not happy with her theft, but he quickly sizes up Bee. She's charmingly nervy, and the softhearted baker is in dire need of an apprentice.
The two get along famously as they bake treats--but nothing with pecans or lemon from the ancient cookbooks, because the kingdom hasn't had any trees since they were removed to plant lucrative tulip fields. When Bee is asked to deliver pastries to the palace of the Mage, the greedy tulip tyrant himself, she discovers he has sinister plans for his lonely charge, Princess Anika. Bee decides to help her run away. Fortunately, Bee has a curious power: she can cook her own state of mind into her baked goods, and is thereby able to secure allies or foil foes, like the palace guards, in inventive, comical ways indeed. Betrayal by bun! A swashbuckling adventure ensues.
In the comfortingly upright world of Baker's Magic, there are villains, but mostly people act honorably, from Bee, who risks all for the princess, to the benevolent baker, Bee's loyal friend Wil, and the charismatic female pirate captain who's a softie (for a pirate). Diane Zahler (The Thirteenth Princess) cooks up a scrumptious, gracefully eco-minded middle-grade fantasy of found families and unusual heroes worth cheering. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness