Connecting Through Illustrations: A Guest Post by Devin Elle Kurtz
Congratulations to our Overall Winner of the 2025 B&N Children’s and YA Book Awards!Author Devin Elle Kurtz shared a painting of a rain-soaked baby dragon outside of a bakery storefront — and her life was forever changed. Whet your appetite and join this little dragon on a quest to find himself in The Bakery Dragon.
Hardcover $18.99
The Bakery Dragon
The Bakery Dragon
In Stock Online
Hardcover $18.99
NATIONAL BESTSELLER – The heroic tale of a tiny dragon with a heart of gold and a taste for treats! A scrumptious picture book for fans of funny fairytales and fantastic beasts.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER – The heroic tale of a tiny dragon with a heart of gold and a taste for treats! A scrumptious picture book for fans of funny fairytales and fantastic beasts.
I was an illustrator long before I stumbled into authorhood. The Bakery Dragon began as a standalone painting of a rain-soaked baby dragon yearning for bread through a bakery window. It was part of my illustration series that juxtaposed fantasy creatures with modern settings: gryphons sunbathing on city rooftops and sea monsters swimming with surfers. My online followers felt an uncommon affection for the shivering dragon, and quickly mobilized toward his cause. “Let him in!” commenters appealed. “Don’t leave him outside in the cold!” I had just emerged from a lonely bout with my lifelong chronic illness, and connecting with so many people through the illustration was meaningful.
The dragon became two paintings, then three, first collecting a hoard of oven-toasted gold then taking to the sky with bagels on his horns. He burrowed deep into my mind and became my personal brain-wyrm. What world did this little dragon live in? How did he land on those bakery steps? And most of all, what might happen next? When I finally stood back and surveyed the story around me I realized I had something bigger than a series of paintings in mind.
I have always been interested in stories. In my childhood I memorized Stellaluna and Where the Wild Things Are and devoured comics like Calvin and Hobbes. Writing my own children’s book presented a wonderfully enticing challenge. I spent hours in bookstores poring over picture books and deconstructing them in every way I could, from peeking under dust jackets to notating story arcs with sticky notes. Five months and three drafts later I had a manuscript, a working title, and a name for the dragon: Ember. The tiniest flame for the littlest dragon. He would speak with speech bubbles a-la my favorite comics and soar across detailed environments inspired by my career in animation. I already knew what the cover would be: the wide-eyed dragon, staring through the window.
Ember is different from the other dragons, an experience I pulled directly from my youth. His tiny size makes him a lousy gold-thief in the same way my chronic illness made it hard to keep up with my classmates. But Ember discovers something he’s passionate about – baking – and that passion guides him toward connection and community in ways he couldn’t have dreamed. My childhood discovery was art, not baking, but that’s what’s beautiful about the world we live in. There are so many crafts we each can pursue, even those as unexpected as a dragon in the kitchen! I hope readers big and small, cold-blooded and warm, will find comfort and laughter in Ember’s journey to find his place in the world.
PS – To all the earliest fans who rightfully demanded I let him inside the bakery: thank you deeply. He’s here to stay.