Staff Writer: Kathleen
Title: The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake by Devin Elle Kurtz
Published Date: October 7, 2025
Number of pages: 40 pages
Format: Physical book
Genre: Children’s
Tags: Picture Book, Dragons, Baking, Author/Illustrator, Female Author
Cardigan rating: 5 out of 5
I love a good picture book with a cute animal, and yes, I prefer when that cute animal is a cat or maybe a dog, but I most definitely do not discriminate against dragons. 2024’s The Bakery Dragon is one of my all-time favorite books- not just picture books, books in general- so when I saw a sequel was coming out, I immediately begged for us to buy it. Little Ember is just the cutest thing, oh my goodness, and the first book is a sweet story about finding your niche, so I was definitely excited to see where Kurtz would go from there. I was far from disappointed. He’s found his groove in the bakery, he’s being trusted with more responsibilities, but when faced with a request for something he’s not familiar with, he falls short and gets pretty discouraged- that’s a feeling we all know well, no matter our age. As a kid, and even now as an adult, I have a hard time with persevering when I’m not immediately good at a new skill or technique, so having a picture book showing children that it’s okay to need help when something doesn’t click is wonderful. To paraphrase a line from the book, sometimes you don’t lack the ability, but the recipe.