Book info

• Title The Magic of Oz
• Author L. Frank Baum
• Year 1919
• Genre Childrens

Seeking special birthday presents to express their devotion to the wise and beautiful Princess Ozma, the friends venture beyond the Emerald City and into unknown territory. Little Trot and Cap’n Bill find themselves stuck — literally! — on an enchanted island, while Dorothy and the Wizard uncover a treasonous plot. It seems that Kiki Aru, the foolish son of a magician, and Ruggedo, the evil King of the Nomes, intend to recruit an army of forest-dwelling beasts, overthrow Princess Ozma, and enslave the citizens of Oz. Can Dorothy and the Wizard foil the conspirators’ plans and rescue their stranded comrades?

Thoughts

The penultimate book in the original Baum series of magical Oz adventures and it’s very similar to those that have gone before. Several of the characters from previous books, including Dorothy, head out on adventures to try and find Ozma a birthday present. What do you get for the girl who has everything and if she doesn’t have everything she can just magic it into being?

What I did find with this story is that a lot of the rules and premises that have been revealed gradually throughout the previous books are starting to stack up and make inconsistencies. No one can die in Oz, so then why are people scared of the forest beasts? And how did the Lion and Hungry Tiger eat bees, who are clearly living things? Since when has Ozma only been able to track what people do and not beasts? I’m sure she’s kept an eye on the lion, the scarecrow and more.

You have to look past all that, I guess, and just revel in the imaginative ideas, but it does feel like the series has started to go off the boil at this point.

Rating: 3 / 5