With The Magic of Oz we approach the end of the original series, as this is the thirteenth and penultimate book in the novels by Baum himself. Young Kiki Aru, a boy of the Hyup people who live atop Mount Munch, is a bored and indolent sort of boy, the kind who seems always unwilling to be part of the community around him. One day, however, he discovers the only magical secret his father, Bini Aru, had preserved from the days that Bini Aru was a great Sorcerer: the magical word "Pyrzqxgl", complete with instructions on how to pronounce this [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: The Tin Woodman of Oz
June 18, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Woot the Wanderer is, as his name says, a wanderer of Oz, originally from the Gillikin country, who arrives in his travels at the Palace of the Tin Woodman. That worthy, always interested in newcomers, has Woot brought in and asks him to tell of himself and his travels. But after this, as Woot is enjoying a dinner (which, naturally, neither the Tin Woodman nor his current companion, the Scarecrow, partake of), Woot asks how the Woodman came to be made of tin. The Woodman recounts the story – how he came to love a Munchkin [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: The Scarecrow of Oz
June 9, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Baum wrote many other stories, although none of them reached the popularity of the Oz novels. He wrote two books, titled The Sea Fairies and Sky Island, featuring a diminuitive girl nicknamed Trot and her guardian, the old seaman called Cap'n Bill, as the two went on strange faerie adventures under water and into the sky. In the second volume, the pair encounter two familiar faces from the Oz novels, the eternal lost boy Button-Bright (who is slightly older, and considerably less stupid, than he was in his appearance in The Road to [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: The Patchwork Girl of Oz
June 2, 2015 By Leave a Comment
After The Emerald City of Oz, Baum originally intended to end the series. But both his tendency to spend money, and insistent legions of fans, showed this to be as futile an attempt as that of Conan Doyle to kill off Sherlock Holmes. As he had deliberately had Oz sealed away from contact with the outside world, Baum showed one of his whimsical attempts at maintaining consistency in the introduction of The Patchwork Girl of Oz, stating that he had managed to establish a wireless (radio) link with Oz (with the Wizard and Shaggy Man [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: The Emerald City of Oz
May 28, 2015 By Leave a Comment
The sixth book in the series is a pivotal story in more than one way. In The Emerald City of Oz, Dorothy learns that rebuilding the house in Kansas following the twister, and then taking the rest-cure trip to Australia, put Uncle Henry in considerable debt. He had hoped to be able to pay that debt off, but crops have not been good and his health has not fully recovered. While Henry doesn't worry much for himself, he does about Em and of course both of them are very worried for the often inexplicably cheerful Dorothy. They want her [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
May 11, 2015 By Leave a Comment
By this point in the series, the Oz books had developed into the Harry Potter of their day. Writing an Oz novel was an assured way to mint money for L. Frank Baum, and for many years he availed himself of that mint whenever he found himself short of funds, as he invariably did since he was a terrible businessman with a fondness for putting on expensive theatrical productions. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is the fourth entry in the series, and the title alone shows how Baum was making sure to pay attention to his fans. Dorothy was popular, [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Ozma of Oz
May 6, 2015 By Leave a Comment
The third book of the Oz series by L. Frank Baum sees the return of arguably the most popular character in the land – Dorothy Gale. In Ozma of Oz, her Uncle Henry has become ill and is advised by his doctor to take a trip to Australia for a sea and country cure. This was not uncommon in the era in which Baum was writing – various forms of "sea air", "desert air", etc., cures were recommended for exhaustion and for illnesses, especially tuberculosis or "consumption" as they called it. While onboard, a powerful storm strikes the [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: The Marvelous Land of Oz
May 4, 2015 By Leave a Comment
The success of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz naturally brought a demand for new Oz material; Baum obliged by producing this, the second in the series. Unlike The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz takes place entirely in fairyland, and all of its characters are natives of Oz itself. The main character is a boy named Tip (short for "Tippetarius") who was left with the witch Mombi as an infant, and has lived there as her ward-cum-servant for all his life. There is no love lost between the boy and the clearly wicked witch, and so [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
May 1, 2015 By 4 Comments
I discussed Baum and his Oz books in a prior Under the Influence, but in honor of the release of Polychrome, I thought it might be appropriate to perform a review of each of the first fourteen Oz novels, including particular reference to events, characters, and my own thoughts on each book that found their way into Polychrome. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, often just called The Wizard of Oz, is the first of the Oz books, published in 1900, 115 years ago. The basic outline of the story is well-known, thought today mostly through the [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: One Piece– The Third Piece!
April 27, 2015 By Leave a Comment
I continue my review of the immense and intricate shonen anime One Piece, following the sometimes "Idiot Hero" Monkey D. Luffy and his peculiar crew – swordsman Rorona Zoro, navigator Nami, combat cook Sanji, medic Chopper, sharpshooter Usopp, archaeologist Nico Robin, and musician Brook – in their united yet individual quests across the hazardous sea called the Grand Line. To recap important points about our heroes and the world of One Piece: Some years back, the so-called Pirate King, Gol D. Roger (usually called Gold Roger) was executed [ Continue reading... ]
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