{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Review of Children's Book Selections by T. Kingfisher/Ursula
Vernon
or
Ode to Sourdough
by Karen S. Wiesner
Ursula Vernon aka T. Kingfisher Back on December 5, 2025, I posted my first review on the Alien Romances blog featuring four young adult fantasy stories by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, who is one and the same--a talented author, illustrator/artist, and gardener (which I really appreciate, as I aspire to someday call myself the same). The first book I ever read by her was A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, in which 14-year-old Mona accidentally creates a sourdough starter "familiar" and later purposely animates gingerbread men and doughboy golem soldiers for an army in her quest to save the city from a corrupt wizard.
From there, I went on to read and review nearly every book she's written under these two names--and pretty close to back-to-back, which, in retrospect, may have been a bit of a mistake (more on that later). As I've said many times before in my weekly posts, readers can enjoy any level of book they choose. I like children's stories just as much as I do young adult and adult fiction. There's everything to love about this author's children's book selections, regardless of whether they're written under her real name Ursula Vernon or her pen name T. Kingfisher.
Recently, I read the ebook of Summer
in Orcus by T. Kingfisher. I found that there are two separate editions
available (one published by Sofawolf Press with illustrations done by Lauren
Henderson instead of the author herself; and another published as free web
serial by the author's Red Wombat Tea Company--I'm not sure if Vernon did the
illustrations herself for that one but I think she did). Both came out in 2017.
This massive children's story (some editions have 386 pages!) features the
fabled witch Baba Yaga. Summer is eleven years old and has little in her life
that causes her joy, in part because her mother is so overly protective, Summer
feels suffocated by her mom's overwhelming fear--of everything. She wants to do
something--something unexpected and worthy. For good or ill, the witch sends
her to the fascinating world of Orcus to do just that. I loved how bumbling but
good-hearted Summer was. She's not quite sure she wanted an actual adventure,
but she never wavered in wanting to help those less fortunate than
herself--and, ultimately, she doesn't want her mom to worry about her too much
(just like Dorothy realizes she doesn't want Auntie Em, who may not understand
her but loves her all the same, to suffer without her). 
Prior to that, I checked out the
audiobook of Nine Goblins (manageable
at only 161 pages, released in 2013), another Kingfisher children's story, in which a party of goblin warriors,
commanded by Nessilka, are trapped behind enemy lines. One way or the other,
the sergeant intends to get her people home. The tagline of "low fantasy,
high mischief" was fun and captivating, as was the story itself. I expect
I would have loved it more when I was younger, as a few of my eclectic favorites
included How to Care for Your Monster
(Norman Bridwell of Clifford fame); William
Steig's one-of-a-kind Shrek!; and anything
by Ruth Chew, who wrote about witches instead of the usual array of spoiled princesses,
adorable mice who rode motorcycles, giant peaches, or mischievous monkeys--all
of which, let's face it, I loved just as well.Under her real name Ursula Vernon, she's published a whole slew of hybrid children's books/graphic novels/comics she both writes and illustrates:
Digger (series) is a wombat engineer trapped in a fantasy world. 
Dragonbreath (series) features a dragon Danny, who's fielding and
figuring out life at a school for reptiles and amphibians. 
Hamster Princess (series) is a hamster that sits atop her battle
quail (in lieu of a white horse, I guess) in twisted fairytale retellings.
Nurk (standalone novel
with 145 pages) highlights the (mis?)adventures of an anything-but-brave shrew
who nevertheless puts on big-boy-panties and does the best job he's capable of in
saving a kidnapped dragonfly prince. You quickly learn after you've
read a few of this author's books that, regardless of whether she's writing
children's or adult fiction, she has distinctive trademarks, namely:
1)
Off-the-wall
humor and angsting.
2) Never-read-anything-like-it-before unique perspectives and secondary
characters.
3) Heartfelt heroism
that stems not (necessarily) from skill but from heaps of unflagging determination
capable of saving the day (luckily but I'm not entirely sure it's a realistic
sentiment).
4)
POV characters (usually
female but not always) that are cut from the same cookie cutter--you meet one,
you've met them all, and I believe all are based on the author herself. Names,
settings, and skills have been altered, sure, but basically the main character
"cookie" almost never changes from one book to the next. This author
does like that character type almost to the point of it getting overwhelming
sometimes because I’ve been reading them all back-to-back. Despite that I love
her work, I highly recommend reading a book of hers here and there instead of
binge-reading them all at once in the space of a couple weeks or months (as I
have and mildly regret).
As a general rule, if you like this author, as I most certainly do, you'll like the majority of her work. If you don't, well, I'm sorry for you, and farewell, there are other writers in the sea. For my part, I became an instant fan with A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking. On that note, a little aside of my own in what I hope is true Kingfisher/Vernon style:
Ode to Sourdough
My husband, who's on the cusp of retiring in mid-2026, has decided that now is the perfect time for him to learn how to capture wild yeast, a.k.a. make bread from sourdough starter. We'll be living on a budget soon and bread is cheap. We're both lifelong fans of it. Can't hardly go wrong, right? Well…
Apparently, this whole sourdough craze became a big trend during the height of the COVID pandemic, but many that started it then have since lost interest. (The luxury of being out and about in the world again is probably a contributing factor there. Who has time?) We didn't get on board then, instead waiting until now. Honestly, I thought I knew what sourdough was but, once I found out it's a way to ferment bread naturally, without commercial, industrially produced baker's yeast, just using the "wild yeast" in the air, I was amazed…and, admittedly, a little grossed out. I couldn't help thinking, "Soylent green is people!", or, more aptly, "Wild yeast is people!", as this lactobacillus bacteria is essentially made up of anything and everything in the natural environment of a household--you guessed it, bacteria, plant, animal, even human stuff. Eww! I just lost my appetite. Seriously. But it's also fascinating. The wild yeast element is what gives sourdough its unique tang. (Does that mean my husband and I have tang? I suppose it does. I repeat myself: Eww.) No two sourdoughs are ever the same, even from one loaf to the next.
On December 30, 2025, my husband began experimenting and journaling his progress in the art of making sourdough. That night, he asked me what we should name our sourdough. My first thought was, "Ursula Vernon". (T. Kingfisher just doesn't have the same ring in becoming the personality of a sourdough starter--don't ask me why not.) He wrote in his journal that first night that we'd named our baby sourdough starter "Ursula Vernon" and wondered whether it was Ursula's birthday or conception day. He ultimately decided that line of thinking was a bit disturbing and backed way off.
Our
healthy and happy little Ursula Vernon Sourdough Starter. Isn't she sweet with
her belt around her waist, her little cap on? There have been a few misstarts, but, as of this writing in late January 2026, Ursula is thriving in her new home in the warmest nook of our dining room. She's produced several very tasty loaves of sourdough bread. My husband has determined that she likes to eat in the morning, and she much prefers to do her rising overnight, baking the next morning in a very rigid and sturdy, tall bread loaf pan rather than any proofing banneton or free-form sheet pan, as she's still much too delicate to be jostled around too much. (We still want to try a Dutch oven though.)
Ursula Vernon, Tall and Proud, Caught Loafing, as she should be Sourdough starter discards have also become a staple in our household, providing pancakes, muffins, rolls, pizza dough--you name it! My husband likes to say proudly, "If I feed Ursula Vernon, she feeds me."
Somehow, I think this quirky author who's made herself very much at home at the top of my "to buy" and "to be read" piles would approve. That is my Ode to Sourdough and Ursula Vernon.
~*~
Here both at the end of the author's current selection (which I've mostly read at this point) and at the beginning of a future in which I look forward to reading her new selections, the bottom line is that, whatever you read by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon, whether for children, adults, or somewhere in-between, you'll find wacky, character-driven adventures that are entertaining, incredibly well written, and engaging. Can't hardly go wrong, I'd say.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre
author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website and blog here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
Be aware
that there may be spoilers in this review.
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