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A review by lcgerstmann
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum
3.0
In 1908 all the little fans of Oz pestered Mr. Baum with letters begging him to reunite Dorothy and the Wizard and so he wrote a story to appease them.
It starts with Dorothy, a farm boy and his horse Jeb, falling through a crack in the Earth and landing in a strange glass world with weird gravity, people made of vegetables that want to kill them and conveniently enough, the Wizard (as humbug as ever).
This sounds as odd and fascinating as would be expected from Baum but unfortunately the whimsy and magic I loved about the previous books was missing. This book was much darker. Dorothy and her friends escape the vegetable people after killing their Prince only to find themselves in more strange lands with even stranger people that also want to kill them or that they kill. This is very heavy for a children's book. For example, Toto has been replaced by a sassy cat named Eureka, who of course can talk (although Toto couldn't ?) and this cat wants to eat the pet pigs of the Wizard so when one of them goes missing, the cat goes on trial and Dorothy's dear friend, Princess Ozma sentences Dorothy's cat to death! What? My kids were horrified! Can you imagine if Toto was to be killed in the first story?
Also, Dorothy seems to be getting dumber as the books progress, she now talks like a hillbilly. Her constantly calling the wooden "gargoyles", "gurgles" did not come off as cute or funny.
The most annoying of all (if it didn't happen in this book, it was the previous) was the inconsistent and completely contradictory explanation of how the Wizard became the ruler of Oz and how Ozma became Tip. No matter how much I love these books and are willing to give Baum his liberties, this change was HUGE and changes the entire premise of the world of Oz! I only hope that the next book wasn't a forced idea by fans but Baum's natural progression of the story.
It starts with Dorothy, a farm boy and his horse Jeb, falling through a crack in the Earth and landing in a strange glass world with weird gravity, people made of vegetables that want to kill them and conveniently enough, the Wizard (as humbug as ever).
This sounds as odd and fascinating as would be expected from Baum but unfortunately the whimsy and magic I loved about the previous books was missing. This book was much darker. Dorothy and her friends escape the vegetable people after killing their Prince only to find themselves in more strange lands with even stranger people that also want to kill them or that they kill. This is very heavy for a children's book. For example, Toto has been replaced by a sassy cat named Eureka, who of course can talk (although Toto couldn't ?) and this cat wants to eat the pet pigs of the Wizard so when one of them goes missing, the cat goes on trial and Dorothy's dear friend, Princess Ozma sentences Dorothy's cat to death! What? My kids were horrified! Can you imagine if Toto was to be killed in the first story?
Also, Dorothy seems to be getting dumber as the books progress, she now talks like a hillbilly. Her constantly calling the wooden "gargoyles", "gurgles" did not come off as cute or funny.
The most annoying of all (if it didn't happen in this book, it was the previous) was the inconsistent and completely contradictory explanation of how the Wizard became the ruler of Oz and how Ozma became Tip. No matter how much I love these books and are willing to give Baum his liberties, this change was HUGE and changes the entire premise of the world of Oz! I only hope that the next book wasn't a forced idea by fans but Baum's natural progression of the story.