John Dough and the Cherub is a children's fantasy novel, written by American author L. Frank Baum, about a living gingerbread man and his adventures.

Eventually they made the best of the situation: in the publicity campaign for the original edition, Reilly & Britton conducted a contest in which the book's child readers could vote on Chick's sex.

Instantly the pain is gone and she feels "as light and airy as a fairy...It occurred to her that she would like to dance; to run and shout, to caper about as she used to do as a girl."

Her husband Jules comes into the bakery at 3:00 AM; it is the Fourth of July, and he decides to bake a large gingerbread man to display in his store window.

The full dose of the Great Elixir has endowed John Dough the gingerbread man not only with life, but with intelligence and multilingual speech.

Jules flees in panic; John Dough equips himself with the baker's top hat and a candy-cane cane, and sets out to see the world.

On the evening of the Fourth, John Dough accidentally hitches a ride on a large rocket launched during the festivities.

Among the more memorable are: an animated Wooden Indian; a girl executioner who never gets to kill anybody and weeps over the fact; a two-legged talking horse that bullies its rider; and the youthful and tyrannical "Kinglet" of Phreex.

They meet Pittypat, a talking white rabbit, and Para Bruin, a big and bouncing rubber bear.

Things get worse when Ali Dubh shows up and reveals to the Mifkets that John Dough is good to eat.

John sacrifices the rest of his mutilated hand to save the life of a pretty young girl trapped on the island, who is wasting away.

Pittypat the rabbit introduces the heroes to the King of the Fairy Beavers, who accepts them into his subterranean domain and resolves their difficulties with his magic.

The twin countries of Hiland and Loland occupy opposite halves of an island, separated by a high wall and a large and richly-furnished castle.

Together, the three manage very well for many years to come — but the annals of Hiland and Loland never make clear whether Chick, the Head Booleywag, is male or female.

With John Dough in the following year, Baum returned to the unique hybrid fantasy world of his Oz books and related works.

Baum mixes technology into his Oz fantasies and into John Dough as well; aircraft and incubators were recent developments in 1906.

The "fairy beavers" are a kind of animal spirit Baum employs in his The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.