How the Wizard Saved Oz

Early Oz

by Donald Abbott (Illustrator)

Book by

Genres: Fairy Tales

112 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 1996

Reviews

[Orion · Rating 4 out of 5]

How The Wizard Saved Oz is Donald Abbott's second book about the Wizard of Oz's adventures in Oz before Dorothy arrives there. The first book, How The Wizard Came To Oz, tells the story of how a circus ventriloquist rides a lighter than air ballon through a storm, lands in Oz, and is proclaimed a powerful wizard by the gullible people who live there. In this book, the Queen of the Field Mice asks the Wizard for help in finding the field mice of Oz. All her subjects have suddenly disappeared leaving behind only a scrap of cloth from a tailor who lives far to the north in the land of the Gillikins. The two set out to ask the tailor about the possible owner of the scrap. Instead of the tailor, they come across Mombi, a wicked witch with a nefarious plan to steal all the magic in Oz. Can a small mouse and a humbug wizard outwit an evil witch and save the field mice and all of Oz?

Abbott wrote a total of six early Oz stories that he illustrated himself in the style of the first illustrator of Oz, W. W. Denslow. They are prequels to the first two Oz books by L. Frank Baum that will entertain people who want more about Oz.

[Jaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was really engaging, very much in the tradition of the original Oz books and using many similar elements. The only thing keeping me from giving it a higher rating is how badly it needed a skilled editor. There are so many misused homonyms that I actually found it distracting. But it is still an entertaining story, told by someone who knows the history of Oz very well and builds upon it nicely.