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A review by smcscot
Kabumpo in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson
2.0
Miss Thompson did an amazing thing in the Royal Book of Oz. She took a known and beloved world and character list and transposed it into something new and strange and interesting. In this book she looses that momentum, by sliding back into old tropes. In Fact she only has one new and exciting portion in this book, that that is in the land of Illume, with the candle people. Thompson's strength is in the surreal, and unfortunately in this book she relied far too heavily on the old OZ feel. That could have come from publisher pressure, reader pressure, or just the fact that the Royal Book of OZ was a one off and this is how she plans on proceeding. I really hope it's one of the two previous reasons.
This book introduces a bevy of new characters and a new land, not previously in any of the OZ books. We are also introduced to a new anthropomorphized character in the Elegant Elephant, Kabumpo. Kabumpo himself is a fun character and the quest that he and Pompa go on is interesting, but Thompson uses the same basic outline to the quest as so many of the previous OZ books had. It's a fun quest, where the characters have a lot of confidence, then it becomes overwhelming, then Glinda and Ozma get involved and resolve it for the main characters. Thompson tries to infuse this standard plot with newness by word play (for example the land of candles is Illume Nation), but she uses SO much of it, that it just becomes obnoxious. I'm going to keep on with the series, because I always believe there will be one offs (maybe multiple of them), but I really hope that she goes back to what she did in The Royal Book.
This book introduces a bevy of new characters and a new land, not previously in any of the OZ books. We are also introduced to a new anthropomorphized character in the Elegant Elephant, Kabumpo. Kabumpo himself is a fun character and the quest that he and Pompa go on is interesting, but Thompson uses the same basic outline to the quest as so many of the previous OZ books had. It's a fun quest, where the characters have a lot of confidence, then it becomes overwhelming, then Glinda and Ozma get involved and resolve it for the main characters. Thompson tries to infuse this standard plot with newness by word play (for example the land of candles is Illume Nation), but she uses SO much of it, that it just becomes obnoxious. I'm going to keep on with the series, because I always believe there will be one offs (maybe multiple of them), but I really hope that she goes back to what she did in The Royal Book.