Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Tucked away in a far, small, corner of Oz lies the land of Oogaboo. It's a very small valley, with few people, but they do have a Queen. In fact, Queen Ann gets it into her head that she is going to go conquer Ozma of Oz. It's a rather silly idea, but once she has it in her head there is no stopping her!

Our old friend the Shaggy Man is also traveling through Oz. His brother is in trouble, most likely held captive by the Nome King, and Shaggy is searching for him to see if he can free him. Ozma has given him the love magnet that usually rests over the gates leading into the Emerald City. With this he can change the minds of almost anyone so that they suddenly want to be his friend, instead of enemy. Wouldn't that be nice to have in real life?

Shaggy is accompanied on his journey by a girl named Betsy, who was shipwrecked. They, of course, gather other companions along their trip as well. People as strange and interesting as they are! Betsy, in her childhood innocence might remind you some of Dorothy, but she is a different girl and a character in her own right.

Before this book is over there will be battle, a trip to the other side of the world, and even dragons!

The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum

In the last Oz book, "The Emerald City of Oz," Ozma was forced to cut the magical land of Oz off from the rest of the world. This, unfortunately, meant that the official historian of Oz could no longer get any stories about Oz! This made many children very sad, until one clever little child thought to ask why Dorothy couldn't send our favorite historian information via wireless telegraph? Well it was a brilliant idea, and with a little help from Ozma, it was soon worked out so that the children could continue to learn about the wonderful land of Oz!

"The Patchwork Girl of Oz" starts out with us meeting a boy named Ojo the Unlucky, and his Unc Nunkie. Ojo is unlucky because he's lost his parents, and he lives in a lonely part of the forest with only his Unc Nunkie, who hardly ever talks at all. One day their supply of food runs out, and they are forced to go off in search of new food.

Their search leads them to the house of the Crooked Magician, a man who is truly crooked in body, and maybe just a wee bit mentally as well. It was the Crooked Magician who made the Powder of Life that animated Jack Pumpkinhead and the Saw Horse. Making the Powder of Life was an extremely long process, 6 years long to be exact, and he was just now about to finish a second  batch. This time he was making it for the purpose of allowing his wife to animate a servant to help her around the house.

The magician's wife had sewn herself a servant out of a patchwork quilt that she had around the house. The girl was built quite well, with a riot of color that was rather unseemly for a Munchkin household, but that was good, because it would help her remember her place. She also added some brains from the jars her husband kept on the shelf, but only  enough for the Patchwork Girl to do as she wished. What she didn't know was that Ojo decided the Patchwork Girl deserved better brains than that and added quite a bit to the mix!

When the Patchwork Girl was brought to life a terrible accident happened knocking the Liquid of Petrification off the shelf and turning the magician's wife and Unc Nunkie into statues! Everyone was horrified by this, especially because the Powder of Life was spilled at the same time, so there was none left to save the new statues with! The only solutions were to wait the 6 years needed to make more, or to gather the mysterious ingredients needed for the spell to undo them. Not wanting to wait that long, Ojo sets off to find the ingredients, and the Patchwork Girl accompanies him. They have a wild adventure meeting lots of new residents of Oz!

The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum

"The Emerald City of Oz" continues the Oz story, and is actually one of the books I remember reading before! I know one point (middle school age?) I decided to read the Oz books, but I didn't go about it systematically reading them in order like I am right now. I just pulled them off the shelf and read whatever I found. So, now, as I'm rereading the series from start to finish I'm finding some books that are brand new to me, and some that are revisits, from a new perspective.

Do you remember the Nome King? We first met him in "Ozma of Oz" when Dorothy found herself in the land of Ev, and ended up saving many lives and taking the Nome King's magic belt. Ozma now owns the Magic Belt, and both her and Dorothy have almost completely forgotten about the Nome King, but he has not forgotten them. The Magic Belt was the base of his power, and in his great anger, he wants it back.

Now Guph, one of the Nome Kings oldest Nomes, heads out on the behalf of the King to form alliances with some of their terrible neighbors in hopes of over taking Oz. The people he visits are terrible and strange, and each group separately agrees to help the Nomes, while secretly planning on betraying them in the end. Their evil, what else would you expect?

Meanwhile Dorothy, Aunt Em, and Uncle Henry are all traveling to Oz! Aunt Em and Uncle Henry were about to lose the farm, and instead of allowing them all to descend into abject poverty, Dorothy decides to appeal to her dear friend Ozma to allow them to move to Oz. Ozma is delighted to agree, and before they know what's happening, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry find themselves in the castle in Oz. It's quite the adjustment for these poor farmers, but they slowly begin to acclimate.

Ozma sends her friends off to explore Oz, and we get to meet many more strange creatures while they tour Oz. It seems the land of Oz is ever full of surprising new creatures and lands! As they explore the Nome King is drawing ever closer in his attack on Oz, but don't worry, Dorothy and her friends turn out to have a few tricks up their sleeves.

The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum

"The Road to Oz" is the 5th book in the beloved Oz series by L. Frank Baum. In this book Dorothy and Toto meet a new friend, the Shaggy Man, and she travels with him a short ways to give him directions. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) they find themselves in a maze of magical roads and obviously very far from Kansas!

Not knowing what else to do; Dorothy and her companions start out along a random road to see where it leads. Before long they discover that the road leads to Oz, and that Princess Ozma is having a birthday! Dorothy and her friends decide to follow the road until they reach Oz, because Dorothy would love to see her friend again, and they know that Ozma would be able to help them reach home again.

As they travel to Oz Dorothy, Toto, and the Shaggy Man pick up some more companions and travel through yet more strange lands. Baum's capacity for coming up with new concepts is astounding! We meet fox people, donkey people, and a man who makes music whenever he breaths. Dorothy also becomes friends with the daughter of the rainbow.

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum

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Dorothy And the Wizard in Oz

"Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" was written after Baum received numerous letters requesting more stories with Dorothy, and wondering whatever happened to the Wizard. Baum had a soft spot for the precious children who read his books, so he had to answer their questions! In fact in his introduction Baum wrote, "To have pleased you, to have interested you, to have won your friendship, and perhaps your love, through my stories, is to my mind a great an achievement as to become President of the United States." Isn't that sweet?

In "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz" Dorothy finds herself on another adventure when the earth opens up literally right in front of her! Because of a massive earth quake Dorothy, her kitten Eureka, Zeb the farm boy, and the cab horse Jim, all find themselves in a strange land in the center of the earth. Dorothy handles these developments fairly well, she's been on some incredible adventures after all, but it takes Zeb a little longer to adjust!

The first land that Dorothy and Zeb find themselves in is inhabited by vegetable people. They grow on plants and find themselves distrustful of the "meat people." The wizard soon shows up and it turns out that he was trapped beneath the earth as well. He joins their group and soon they find themselves having to run for their lives!

Baum creates a number of fascinating lands in this book. Each of them strange and incredible. Eventually Dorothy finds herself back in Oz and reunited with her old friends! It's fun book, great to read to your kids, or just when you want to revisit your childhood.

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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Ozma of Oz

"Ozma of Oz" is the response to the cry of many young readers that Baum bring Dorothy back to the world of Oz. This time she reaches that magical land not by tornado, but by ship wreck, and she first spend a good deal of time in the kingdom of Ev.

The kingdom of Ev is languishing because the old King sold off his wife and children in exchange for a long life, and then threw himself into the sea in remorse. Now it's up to Dorothy, Ozma, and their host of friends to figure out how to free the missing Queen and the children.

Dorothy, with her sweet personality, makes several new friends in this book that you will fall in love with! There are a lot of little lessons to be learned a long the way as well, so if you are reading this to your kids, you'll have some fun ways to sneak in some teaching moments. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!

The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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The Marvelous Land of Oz

"The Marvelous Land of Oz" is the second book that L. Frank Baum wrote about the delightful land of Oz. It came out four years after the first one because, well, he originally had no intention of writing any more! He received many letters asking for more books though, and he finally gave in and kept writing them.

In "The Marvelous Land of Oz" we meet some new characters and rejoin some of our old friends. Tip, a young boy, is the main character of this book. He's grown up with a mean old sorceress, but after the accidental creation of Jack Pumpkinhead, he runs away. Tip and Jack get into many adventures on their way to the Emerald City, where the Scarecrow now rules. Unfortunately they arrive right as a bunch of girls, lead by General Jinjur, decide to take over the city!

Tip and Jack ended up joining forces with the Scarecrow and the Tin Man to win back the Emerald City. Along the way a flying Gump is created, we visit with Glenda the Good Witch, and the long lost Ozma is finally found! I had a lot of fun joining this motley crew on their journey and I'm sure you will too.

Revisiting Oz

Pendant by ItsAllAboutThePrint :)

I've always loved the classic Wizard of Oz movie with it's bright colors, witches, and flying monkeys! Somewhere along the way I realized that I had never read the books, and so I read through most (I think all) of the series awhile ago.  I don't remember how long ago, but it's been long enough that I don't remember them very clearly anymore, so I decided that it's time to re-read them! Starting, of course, at the beginning.

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum is full of fanciful images, sweet childhood, and great illustrations by W.W. Denslow!  It was fun to reread this book and remember all the differences from the movie, and yet all the similarities as well.  The copy I got from the Library had an introduction by Robert A Baum, the great-grandson of L. Frank Baum.  He said that:

"L. Frank felt that the old European fairy tales were dated and full of 'stereotyped genies, dwarfs and fairies,' not to mention 'horrible and blood curdling incidents devised to point out a fearsome moral in each tale.' He felt it was time for a new generation of 'modernized' fairy tales to be written just to entertain."

I think he did an excellent job - and if you've never read the book I highly recommend you go out and pick up a copy - revisit your childhood!