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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
This, is, quite frankly, the worst of all the Oz books I've read. I got the feeling that, by the end, Baum was bored with writing it and just stopped trying.
It starts rather disturbingly in that Dorothy walks away from her farm alone with a stranger called The Shaggy Man who says that he's lost and needs directions. Since Dorothy has no sense at all of stranger danger, she goes off with this man who swears that he has a "love magnet" that attracts everyone to him. Eventually, he leads Dorothy into his cottage in the woods, tortures her, chops her up, and eats her. Wait. No. That last bit didn't happen, much to the reader's surprise.
Instead, the 2 wander along, both lost. Dorothy assumes the road they've taken must lead to Oz because she always ends up there when she gets lost. Along the way, they meet many new people (as usual in these novels), several of which tell her to ask Ozma if it would be okay if they came to Ozma's birthday party. Before long, the journey turns into a journey to attend Ozma's birthday party.
I'm always impressed with Baum's ability to create memorable characters. The most significant new character that Dorothy meets on the road to Oz is The Rainbow's Daughter who is named Polychrome. My daughter insists that she must dress as Polychrome next Halloween. Once the traveling group arrives in Oz, Baum spends chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter having every person from the previous 4 books show up to the party (along with several new ones). The interesting thing is that, even though some of the characters only appeared briefly in some of the other books of the series, they're all instantly memorable when they arrive for the party. I marvel at Baum's ability to create such a plethora of memorable characters, fully and memorably fleshing each of them out in just a paragraph or 2 when they're first introduced. But reading about each of them arriving to Ozma's party for chapter on end without any plot made me wonder if it became as much of a chore for Baum to write as it was for me to read. Even the events of the party were written without any feeling. The last part of the book was very much told rather than shown. It feels as if Baum was too bored with the book to bother writing by the time he got to the birthday party scene.
By the time all of the characters showed up to the party, I wasn't surprised at all that Santa Claus showed up as well. We'll have to read Baum's [b:The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus|715058|The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus|L. Frank Baum|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387732742s/715058.jpg|701311] in December. Perhaps that shall be more interesting.
Other than meeting The Rainbow's Daughter, I could have skipped this book. It may be quite a while before I'm tempted to move forward with the series. I probably will eventually, but I doubt it will be any time soon.
It starts rather disturbingly in that Dorothy walks away from her farm alone with a stranger called The Shaggy Man who says that he's lost and needs directions. Since Dorothy has no sense at all of stranger danger, she goes off with this man who swears that he has a "love magnet" that attracts everyone to him. Eventually, he leads Dorothy into his cottage in the woods, tortures her, chops her up, and eats her. Wait. No. That last bit didn't happen, much to the reader's surprise.
Instead, the 2 wander along, both lost. Dorothy assumes the road they've taken must lead to Oz because she always ends up there when she gets lost. Along the way, they meet many new people (as usual in these novels), several of which tell her to ask Ozma if it would be okay if they came to Ozma's birthday party. Before long, the journey turns into a journey to attend Ozma's birthday party.
I'm always impressed with Baum's ability to create memorable characters. The most significant new character that Dorothy meets on the road to Oz is The Rainbow's Daughter who is named Polychrome. My daughter insists that she must dress as Polychrome next Halloween. Once the traveling group arrives in Oz, Baum spends chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter having every person from the previous 4 books show up to the party (along with several new ones). The interesting thing is that, even though some of the characters only appeared briefly in some of the other books of the series, they're all instantly memorable when they arrive for the party. I marvel at Baum's ability to create such a plethora of memorable characters, fully and memorably fleshing each of them out in just a paragraph or 2 when they're first introduced. But reading about each of them arriving to Ozma's party for chapter on end without any plot made me wonder if it became as much of a chore for Baum to write as it was for me to read. Even the events of the party were written without any feeling. The last part of the book was very much told rather than shown. It feels as if Baum was too bored with the book to bother writing by the time he got to the birthday party scene.
By the time all of the characters showed up to the party, I wasn't surprised at all that Santa Claus showed up as well. We'll have to read Baum's [b:The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus|715058|The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus|L. Frank Baum|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387732742s/715058.jpg|701311] in December. Perhaps that shall be more interesting.
Other than meeting The Rainbow's Daughter, I could have skipped this book. It may be quite a while before I'm tempted to move forward with the series. I probably will eventually, but I doubt it will be any time soon.
Wild book. I think we get a genocide in this book as well as four chapters of describing a dinner party. Big fan.
This was not my favorite book so far, might have been because of the narration of the book.
2011: I finished Ozma of Oz and then read Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz and The Road to Oz, after which I sort of felt like I'd been stuck in Oz for years, to the extent that it was all I was dreaming about. Which is fine, but you can only have so many dreams about talking chickens before you realize you need a break.
2016 update: I reread this with my husband. No chicken dreams...THIS time.
2016 update: I reread this with my husband. No chicken dreams...THIS time.
This one felt a bit more cobbled-together than those before it. By Baum's admission in the intro, he didn't expect to be writing more about Oz, but it does feel like be phoned this one in a bit. The plot is much simpler, and while the main characters are likable, the side characters are just kind of "there". In fact, there are times when nothing is really happening, but the group of characters present is repeatedly listed and briefly described. It really did feel to me like Baum went, "well, you wanted more Oz, so here you go, I guess," and then did the bare minimum. I'm hoping things pick up again in the 9 books ahead!
While not as dark as the last book, The Road to Oz has many similarities to Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Again, our little heroine unintentionally sets off on a journey during which she meets a host of new characters, experiences a few easily-overcome challenges, and ends up in Oz. This time, though, there wasn't really any conflict and only one encounter with a malicious opponent on their travels. The Shaggy Man was actually a bit creepy at the beginning (my kids have been taught to run and find a parent if an adult they don't know asks them for directions!), though, of course, he turned out all right. Several of the new characters just stuck in my craw. Button Bright was just annoying...If he'd said "don't know" one more time I might have reached through the pages of the book and throttled him. And what, pray tell, was Polychrome's purpose (besides encouraging anorexia)? She was about as engaging as a piece of lint - a very pretty, variegated piece of lint, to be sure, but still...blah.
With these last two books it really seems that Mr. Baum was frustrated in his desires to write something other than Oz books, so he decided to set the books elsewhere and just have the characters end up in Oz so he could slap those two letters on the cover of the book and make money while trying to branch out into other "fairylands". I enjoyed reading all these when I was a kid, and my kids are loving them now, but as an adult, they're wearing a bit thin.
And I felt awfully bad for the poor Musicker, not getting an invite to Ozma's party. No one, in a land where kindness and generosity are supposed to reign supreme, was even the tiniest bit kind to the poor guy who can't help making music.
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
With these last two books it really seems that Mr. Baum was frustrated in his desires to write something other than Oz books, so he decided to set the books elsewhere and just have the characters end up in Oz so he could slap those two letters on the cover of the book and make money while trying to branch out into other "fairylands". I enjoyed reading all these when I was a kid, and my kids are loving them now, but as an adult, they're wearing a bit thin.
And I felt awfully bad for the poor Musicker, not getting an invite to Ozma's party. No one, in a land where kindness and generosity are supposed to reign supreme, was even the tiniest bit kind to the poor guy who can't help making music.
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.