Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

Oz #4

by L. Frank Baum

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is the fourth book set in the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by John R. Neill. It was published on June 18, 1908 and reunites Dorothy with the humbug Wizard from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This is one of only two of the original fourteen Oz books (the other being The Emerald City of Oz) to be illustrated with watercolor paintings.

Including chapter openings and closings, this edition of the book contains 67 images, all of which have been reconditioned. Thirty of the illustrations are full-page, of which 16 are in full-color.

Baum, having resigned himself to writing a series of Oz books, set up elements of this book in the prior Ozma of Oz. He was not entirely pleased with this, as the introduction to Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz opens with the protest that he knows many tales of many lands, and hoped that children would permit him to tell them those tales.

Written shortly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and around the time Baum moved to California, the book starts with an earthquake in California. Dorothy and others are swallowed up by cracks in the earth, and fall into an underground cavern, where begin their adventures.

Very little of the story—six of the twenty chapters—actually takes place in Oz. As in Ozma of Oz before it, and in some of the books after, Oz is not the land where the adventures take place, but the land the characters are seeking as a refuge from adventure.

The book was dedicated to Harriet Alvena Baum Neal, the author's eldest sister.

* This e-book is a true representation, from a high-definition scan of a pre-1923 print version of the book. Unlike other e-copies of the book, it was not produced by using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). OCR-scanning old books is seldom, if ever, error-free. This often results in an e-book with many **, ^^, >> and typographic errors when OCR can't read the word or punctuation correctly.

* "True representation" means that if there are typographic, spelling, or grammatical errors that the editor judges to have minimal impact on the book's comprehension, they have been preserved; otherwise, they were corrected.

* In other words, no changes or as few as possible have been made to either illustrations or text in order to bring you an e-book that is as close to the original as possible.

Genres: Fantasy, Classics, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Adventure, Middle Grade

94 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1908

About the author

also wrote under the names:
* Edith van Dyne,
* Floyd Akers,
* Schuyler Staunton,
* John Estes Cooke,
* Suzanne Metcalf,
* Laura Bancroft,
* Louis F. Baum,
* Captain Hugh Fitzgerald

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, part of a series. In addition to the 14 Oz books, Baum penned 41 other novels (not including four lost, unpublished novels), 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book became a landmark of 20th-century cinema.
Born and raised in Chittenango, New York, Baum moved west after an unsuccessful stint as a theater producer and playwright. He and his wife opened a store in South Dakota and he edited and published a newspaper. They then moved to Chicago, where he worked as a newspaper reporter and published children's literature, coming out with the first Oz book in 1900. While continuing his writing, among his final projects he sought to establish a film studio focused on children's films in Los Angeles, California.
His works anticipated such later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high-risk and action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work).

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite Oz book. It just reads as a series of unrelated episodes as Dorothy and her companions stumble along under the earth trying to find their way to the surface again. There's the land of vegetable people and the land of creatures made out of wood and the land of invisible people, etc. None of the lands yielded any characters with real staying power.

And the inconsistencies make me wonder if Mr. Baum ever re-read his own books. In Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and Ozma arranged that Ozma would look in her magic mirror every Saturday morning at 10:00 (my 8yo son remembered that detail specifically!) and if Dorothy made a certain sign, Ozma would wish her to Oz. In this book all of a sudden, the arrangement was every day at 4:00. Besides, if Ozma checked in on her every day at 4:00, why on earth hadn't she made the sign earlier and why didn't any of her companions ask her that when she finally told them about it?!?! Also, I swear that in The Land of Oz right before bringing the Sawhorse to life, Tip was explaining the difference between sawhorses and real horses to Jack Pumpkinhead. But how would Tip of known anything about real horses if, as it states in this book, there are no real horses in Oz?!?!

And that weird trial for Eureka at the end of the book was just...odd... Can't say I really care much for this Oz book at all.

For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.

[Suhailah · Rating 3 out of 5]

4/14 books read of the original OZ Series ✔️

Have you ever wondered what really lies beneath the ground? Far below the earth? What if there is another world or even multiple worlds existing below us? You may have read Journey to the Center of the Earth and had some ideas. Well, in the 4th installment of the Oz Series, L. Frank Baum demonstrates his ideas of what strange lands are thriving below us.

This book starts out with Dorothy and her kitten Eureka falling into a crack in the ground during an earthquake along with her ride companions, a horse named Jim and a farm boy named Zeb.

Though I still enjoyed following the adventure and seeing what creative creatures the group would meet next, I have to say this one was lacking the magic previous books had. There were also some inconsistencies I noticed regarding information given in prior books. The ending was also lackluster and a bit bizarre. But the Wizard of Oz is in this one, and we get to check in with old characters. There is also vegetable people!!

I’ll definitely try to continue on with the series in the future to see what comes next! As for the series losing its magic, I’ll try to remind myself that the continuation of this series was purely a labor of love on Baum’s part, all for his fans, as revealed in the foreword, which is sweet! ♡

[Obsidian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please note that this book will spoil events from books one through three. So if you haven't read those books, skip over this review.

My general feeling once I finished this book was eh.

I feel bad for saying this, but the charm of the first two Oz books has worn off of me. I had issues with book three but this one really did not gel for me at all. Maybe it's because two new characters sucked. A lot. And I was glad to be rid of them.

Yes. I am totally calling out a children's book right now for being just an okay read.

First we have Dorothy still running around like a mini-tyrant. I think her bossy nature got a bit grating in this one for me. We also have Dorothy running back into the hum-bug The Wizard.

I feel like everyone had amnesia from book three onward since everyone just ignores the fact that the Wizard kidnapped Princess Ozma when she was a baby and gave her to the witch Mombi. Why does everyone just forget that fact? Instead The Wizard is still seen as this great powerful person who actually just knows magic tricks and is no more magical than an empty water bottle. I was sick of The Wizard at the end of this book.

Except for Zeb, the other two new characters, Jim and Eureka were plenty awful. At one point we actually get a trial scene with Eureka being accused of something monstrous and Eureka was just like: "oh who cares?"

Jim was just nasty and awful to my favorite character Saw-Horse and I was never so happy when he got the paw-down from The Hungry Tiger.

The main plot of Dorothy and crew trying to find their way out of the constant jams they find themselves in really make no sense since we realize from book three she already has a way to get out of trouble. The fact that it took Dorothy so long to remember she had a way to get everyone to Oz safely just made me shake my head.

I realized the other day that Dorothy is a straight up TSTL heroine in these books, and it makes me sad. Additionally, I feel like Ozma has been regulated to just being the most beautiful ruler ever and not really thought of as being smart either. The other characters really don't grab me, and the entire Land of Oz seems to be run by really attractive and not terribly intelligent people.

Usually I found myself enchanted with the other creatures, characters, and settings that L. Frank Baum writes in these books. I mean we meet an entire land that is made of glass. The people are actually walking talking vegetables. I felt nothing. Instead this time I found myself getting bored of it about halfway through. We travel to a land where eating a certain fruit makes you invisible. I shrugged.

I had plans to try to finish all 14 Oz books, but I think I will pass.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author says in the foreword to this book that he tried to fit as many of his fans' suggestions into the book as possible and I can well believe it as the book feels a bit like a box-ticking exercise sometimes, particularly near the end. (Man, what an awful sentence! Never mind; I'm too tired to change it.)

I still enjoyed the book a great deal, though. I've come to realise I'm picturing the characters as drawn by Skottie Young in Marvel's comicbook adaptations of this series. No bad thing, I suppose...

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another series that I read lots in my youth, and thus retain a fondness for, despite recognizing that Baum is only a middling writer, at best. His inventiveness, which is his greatest strength, often gets out of hand and doesn't lend itself to satisfying narratives with a beginning, middle, and end. And don't even get me started on the inconsistencies... But every now and then, he gets off a really good line:

"H.M.," said the Woggle-Bug, pompously, "means Highly Magnified; and T.E. means Thoroughly Educated. I am, in reality, a very big bug, and doubtless the most intelligent being in all this broad domain."
"How well you disguise it," said the Wizard.

My son, currently 8, is enjoying Oz; I believe we may end up going through the whole series. This makes me groan, just slightly, thinking of all the number of times old friends are going to greet each other warmly (more and more of them in each successive book) when they are reunited, usually in the Emerald City after all the good parts of the story are over. But I think I'll enjoy revisiting Rinkitink in Oz, and Glinda of Oz, both of which I remember as being particularly engrossing to ten-year-old me.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite of the Oz books. The the California earthquake that drops Dorothy and Zeb into the earth, the organically grown glass buildings, the vegetable people, the little old man living on a stair landing halfway up the mountain who makes rustles (for silk dresses), flutters (for flags), and high-quality holes (for, I don't know flagpoles?), the wooden gargoyles, the dragonettes with their tails tied to rocks, the trial of Eureka the kitten for murder of a piglet... it's all so delightfully zany and creative and just plain fun.

[Sara Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5

Such a delightful and marvellous book!

[Annemiek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is the #4th book from the Wizard of Oz collection written bij L. Frank Baum, originally published in 1908.

In this story we find Dorothy with her kitten Eurika (not her little dog Toto) together with her cousin Zeb and a horse named Jim.

There came an earthquake and with the 4 of them they fell thru a creak in the earth and landed in a magical land what just lies beneath the earth's surface. In that land they met with the Wizard of Oz and his pets the 9 small piglets, who, also like Dorothy, fell thru a creak in the earth, and got stuck there with the air balloon. The magical land was a vegetable land, but the vegetable did not trust the Wizard nor Dorothy, especially the animals were a problem for them, while they have never seen such things.

How are they going to get home?
Dorothy, the Wizard, Zeb, Jim, Eurika and the 9 small piglets travel thru several lands to come back home.

[Bob Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quake Takes Kansas Kid and Co. to Oz

For the third time, Dorothy is swept up by terrifying events, this time falling through the earth in a California quake accompanied by a kid named Zeb, a horse called Jim, and Eureka the cat, who has replaced Toto. They all fall past weird, colored suns and land in the domain of the Mangaboos, who are vegetable people. True to nineteenth century plots (OK, this one was written in 1908), the natives are hostile, but the intrepid American kids and their animals defeat all the baddies. The kids are now accompanied by the Wizard, who, in his balloon, has also fallen through a crack. They fight with invisible bears and with flying wooden gargoyles before they reach Oz via a classic deus ex machina turn of events.

The first three-quarters of the book is vintage Oz adventure stuff---kids will love it and so will you, no matter what age you are. I have loved this book ever since I first read it well over half a century ago. I remember how dark and dangerous it seemed to me then. The impressions of the underground scenes lasted in my mind for decades. Even when I read the end of Zola's "Germinal", I remembered DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ--not perhaps so sophisticated a comment, but true anyhow. The last quarter is a kind of reunion, where we say hello to all the old characters and see how they are doing. It's like Baum ran out of ideas, but since he wrote a book every year, millions of kids were probably waiting for an update (similar to the Harry Potter series.) They would have been happy to read about their favorite characters again. I know I was. And I always like to read the story---all the Oz stories---again.

This volume in Baum's series may not be the most exciting or well-written, but it had a special atmosphere, very threatening, with more violence than normal in Oz books---cutting, shooting, burning, etc. The reunion and party scenes at the end, including the bad behavior of the American animals, and their return home, are probably too long. Still, if you are an Oz fan, or want to be, you can't miss DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ.

[TJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

So im reading all the Oz books plus the side books, but feeling a little sick so review to come when i'm feeling better

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 2 out of 5]

#4 in the original Baum Oz continuum and you can tell by this point that he was getting a little winded. The whole work comes across as a pandering to his pesky fans who kept demanding new works (he published one a year, it seems like) and is pretty sloppy. Dorothy and some redneck kid fall through a crack in the earth during an earthquake in California and, after randomly finding the original Wizard of Oz in an underground city made of glass, they have a series of unconnected, sometimes unremarkable adventures through the center of the Earth. Some of these bits are okay: the vegetable people and the city of glass are kind of creepy, the dragons and gargoyles are far less successful and the whole thing seems to lack the pithy, folksy charm of the other works. Dorothy and Zeb are just reduced to agape, worthless children, passive enochs to the panoply of insanity unfolding before them. The whole stupid thing ends up with them back in Oz, their asses saved by Ozma and her magical corset or whatever, at the last minute. After that there's a meaningless series of events that have even less to do with the work as a whole as everything that came before it. Again, has some good moments, but overall not what I'd call Ozsome...hahahaha....get it? Oz-some? Like awesome? Shut up.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 4. The decay begins to seriously set in.

As in, it is perhaps indicative that this happens when Dorothy falls into the ground from an earthquake opened crack


Dorothy sighed and commenced to breathe easier. She began to realize that death was not in store for her, after all, but that she had merely started upon another adventure, which promised to be just as queer and unusual as were those she had before encountered.


Along with a boy, a cat, a horse, and a buggy. The people who live there accuse them of being responsible for the fall of stones that came with them. Shortly thereafter the Wizard appears, his balloon having fallen in, and he proves they arrived among vegetable people.

And then they try to escape underground, going from kingdom to kingdom. Finally Ozma rescues them by a deus ex machina. Some incidents in Oz are less interesting.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in 1908, this fourth Oz novel sees Kansas farm-girl Dorothy Gale once again transported to magical lands, this time thanks to a California earthquake, during which our heroine falls into the depths of the earth, together with a boy name Zeb, his carriage-horse Jim, and Dorothy's mischievous kitten, Eureka. Far underground, in the strange land of the Mangaboos - heartless root-people who grows on bushes - Dorothy and Co. meet up with the Wizard (that is to say, the original Wizard from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ), who has also fallen into the earth. Together the companions face many dangers, from the xenophobic Mangaboos to the ferocious invisible bears of the Valley of Voe, on their long journey back to the surface of the earth. Eventually, after confronting a cave full of dragonettes, the travelers are rescued by Ozma of Oz, who transports them to the Emerald City. Here Dorothy and Wizard meet many old friends, while Eureka meets trouble...

I was struck, reading Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, by the many stratagems that Baum must employ in these early Oz books, to transport his heroine to that magical land. In the first, she is whisked away by a cyclone, in the third she is washed overboard in a terrible storm, and here she falls into the earth during an earthquake! Eventually the borders of Oz are closed (I forget in which title this occurs), but until that point the author must contend with the question of how to reunite his characters. The result, I am finding, is that a great deal of the action of the story takes place outside of Oz. However that may be, I enjoyed my reread of this installment of the series, although sometimes Dorothy's "adorable" little-girl accent grated a bit - I don't recall her speaking this way in the original...? - and I could have lived without the trial of Eureka, at the close of the book. Still, I was entertained to meet the Wizard again, and look forward to my reread of the fifth Oz novel, The Road to Oz .

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another enjoyable installation in the Oz series. These are such fun quick reads!

[Shoshana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this one. Baum is sometimes hit-or-miss with how interesting the different kinds of people his characters are constantly meeting are (good sentence, Sho), but he is pretty hit in Dorothy and the Wizard. The Mangaboos, the Valley of Vo, the dragonets, and the gargoyles are all neat, although I wish the dragon herself played a bigger role, and I wish we learned more about how the gargoyles came to be and why they fight and imprison all comers, and what they would have done with our friends when they were prisoners.

Anyway, Baum's weird occasional moments of retro-sexism are back, as when Dorothy, Zeb, and their horse and buggy are falling through an earthquake-created giant chasm in the earth and Dorothy loses consciousness whereas "Zeb, being a boy, did not faint." What? He's a boy, so his brain doesn't have coping mechanisms for shock? I mean, what?

On the other hand, Dorothy is still her bizarrely (and awesomely) unflappable self. Once she regains consciousness, she stares around her at the chasm through which they are still falling, and then she "sighed and commenced to breathe easier." She then proceeds to basically coach Zeb through the whole beginning of the adventure as they approach and explore the land of the Mangaboos, laughing at stuff that frightens him, encouraging him to try walking through the air, and generally sharing intrepidity with all she meets. I particularly like the part where she reassures Zeb that they're not in any danger because they are falling so slowly, he responds by saying "We'll never get home again, though!" and she tells him not to worry about things he can't help. "The boy became silent, having no reply to so sensible a speech." Go, D!

We also have a characteristic Baum-style inconsistency (well, a couple, probably, but one that I particularly noticed). When the Wizard finally meets Ozma, she explains to him that Mombi was her grandfather's jailor and her father's jailor and that when Ozma was born Mombi transformed her into a boy. But in The Land of Oz, Mombi says truthfully that the Wizard brought her baby Ozma and "begged [her] to conceal the child"! I mean, this is a change that makes sense - as it shows the Wizard in a pretty villainous light, and by this point in the series he is really supposed to have grown on us - but it's a pretty dramatic and unacknowledged revision!

Another discrepancy that's actually relevant to the storytelling is that in Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and Ozma agree that Ozma will check on Dorothy every Saturday at a certain time to see if she wants to come to Oz; in Dorothy and the Wizard, Dorothy says that Ozma checks on her every day at four. In which case, why in this book and the next and the next doesn't that ever happen? I think the weekly check-in would explain why they go through so many truly dangerous situations without rescue.

But whatevs! I'm glad for my own sake that they have so many adventures, because I enjoy them so thoroughly!

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four down, eleven more to go..

The first book of the four dark days, the time I had to stare into the darkness without my specs and listen to books. What to say, it finished in few hours and I enjoyed it better than Ozma of Oz.

This book is full of magic and magic is something I love a lot. Dorothy travels to the middle of the earth, totally by accident of course and meets some more magical creatures. Oh, she meets The Wizard of Oz here who also traveled down totally by accident. Reminded me of Jules Verne. There are people who grows on trees, wooden gargoyles, magic leaves which makes u walk on water, magic fruits that makes u invisible and 66 years old baby dragons. I loved the part Frank decided to bring dragons in, that’s a total soft spot.

Short, very short and very catchy. Lovely language too. Again, the hints of a little slap here and a little kick there on humans is totally unavoidable. Frank is growing to be an author I like. Let’s see what the next book brings.


Book #39 of 2021..
Book #04 of Oz series

[Philmore Olazo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothy once again returns to the land of Oz, this time the Wizard comes along for the ride.

The story begins with Dorothy visiting California and being swept into an earthquake, which leads her and her, cousin Zeb, a horse named Jim, and a cat named Eureka, to a strange underground land where people are literal vegetables.

As in the previous books, the whimsical nature of the story is full of playful and surreal moments, like a cat being put on trial for eating a piglet, or a wooden horse racing a real one.

What stands out in this book is the return of the Wizard, which hints at exciting new possibilities for future adventures in the series.

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second to the last of the Wonder book versions we have. I don't even remember when or where I got them, but they are absolutely beautiful books, of excellent quality and lavish illustrations. If you have the money and a true Oz-aficionado in the family, they are worth it and still available for purchase. As I am unsure if anyone else in the family will share my love of this series, I will go to the on-line or a paperback version when I finish the next book, The Road to Oz, until I see where my grandchildren's tastes run. But I shall enjoy these last two delicious books very much!

This book brings every character Baum has introduced in the previous three books together in the end for a grand reunion. Fun!

[scl.ashx · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/4 stars

As someone who has read "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" by L. Frank Baum, I would rate it 3/5 stars.

The story takes Dorothy, the beloved protagonist, on another thrilling adventure in the Land of Oz. There are plenty of twists and turns, along with new magical creatures and places to discover, which keeps the story engaging and fun. Baum's creativity shines through in the vivid descriptions of the fantastical landscapes and characters in Oz. From the glass city to the vegetable people, Baum's imagination creates a unique and enchanting world that sparks the reader's imagination.

The book introduces new characters, including the Wizard himself and a host of eccentric companions, each with their own quirks and personalities. These characters add depth to the story and make for enjoyable interactions and dialogue.

One thing that stuck with me after finishing the story was the importance of teamwork and friendship. Throughout the story, Dorothy and her companions face challenges that require them to work together and rely on each other's strengths. This underlying theme of cooperation and camaraderie serves as a positive takeaway from the book.

In conclusion, "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" by L. Frank Baum is an imaginative and adventurous tale set in the beloved Land of Oz. While it has some pacing issues and simplistic writing style, it offers an enjoyable and magical journey for readers, with memorable characters and a positive message of teamwork. Overall, it is a decent read for fans of Oz and fantasy adventures, especially for those who appreciate classic children's literature with a touch of humor.

[Nostalgia Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This one was quite slow and a very skipable installment. There was no quest, just Dorothy and friends trying to find their way back to Earth. And the means to get there ended up being quite anticlimactic, especially since Dorothy could have used her connection with Ozma at any point in their journey. The animal characters, Eureka and Jim, were both annoying, although the little piglets were quite adorable. There also seemed to be some alternate history introduced here, edited from the history we got in Marvelous Land. I didn't mind it too much, but it is confusing to have it changed... fortunately, I have a collection of the stories, so I could easily look back and see what was changed.

[Sara Jesus · Rating 4 out of 5]

"O feiticeiro de Oz" é um dos meus livros favoritos da minha infância. Fiquei deliciada quando descobri ter continuação. É muito bom reencontrar Dorothy, the Wizard, o espantalho e o leão covarde... E também conhecer outras como a princesa Ozma, o Jim, a Eureka e a Zeb.

Fiquei fascinada pela princesa Ozma. Uma menina que é enganada toda a sua vida, acreditando que é menino e depois descobre que é uma princesa desaparecida. É ela a verdadeira rainha da cidade Esmeralda, conseguindo aos poucos ganhando a confiança do povo. Oz continua a ser um feiticeiro poderoso mas sem trono. Assim como Dorothy é a mesma menina determinada de Kansas.

Sempre que leio algo sobre o maravilhoso mundo de Oz é a imagem do filme de 1939 que surge na minha memória. Judy Garland interpretou a Dorothy que sempre imaginei. São os tijolos amarelos que me lembram a cidade de Esmeralda... Tal como a música "Over the rainbow" me transporta para um mundo repleto de magia e sonhos!!!!

Por fim foi a série "Esmerald city" que me fez conhecer Ozma e permitiu-me voltar a Oz.

[Patrick Sprunger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never considered Dorothy and The Wizard in Oz a particularly good installment in the Oz saga. As the author admits in his introduction, Dorothy and The Wizard was written as a concession to the numerous fan letters appealing to keep Dorothy and the Wizard bound together as a fixture in the ongoing stories of Oz. As only the fourth book - well before the full cast of characters and the complete dimensions of Oz itself were defined - Dorothy and The Wizard doesn't actually go anywhere. Apparently, Baum condescended to surlily give his audience what they asked for, but didn't feel his commitment to his fans necessitated a carefully crafted story. Dorothy and The Wizard feels like a cranky "screw you" aimed at little kids who shouldn't be blamed for wanting more of a story they love than today's kids can be faulted for wanting their Mario Bros. or Batman content to stay current. Taking this as a document, one can only imagine L. Frank Baum in 1908 as a bitter, sad, little man.

I wouldn't have re-read Dorothy and The Wizard at all on my own under ordinary circumstances; I already prepossessed the impressions laid out in the preceding paragraph before re-reading the story today. It's only because of Dorothy and The Wizard's recent adaptation by Marvel comics and the subject of my family's inaugural family "reading circle" that I revisited it at all.* Dorothy and The Wizard sucks at being an Oz book: (A) It isn't even set in Oz, for Christ's sake. (B) Baum's moral inconsistency/ambivalence is on full display. Conflict is created as a result of characters' uncouthness (the Wizard's first line, go-to solution for most problems is genocide), when conflict need not even exist. The actual structured world of Oz, once the characters actually arrive there (in the last 20% of the book) is anti-democratic and anti-humanist.

The only enduring parts of Dorothy and The Wizard come near the very end, in the form of two vignettes tacked on as an afterthought. The race between Jim the horse and the Sawhorse asks quality questions about the value of being real (or fallible) versus engineered (or perfect) - essential early 20th century existentialism. The trial of Eureka the cat may be a shining point in the early Oz books - but it's hard to contextualize. I'm afraid the things that seem to be happening are the result of mistaken associations not contemporaneous to Baum's America - what we internally cross-reference when we read the Eureka trial come out of other things we know, from later material, not from turn of the century thinking. For example, Eureka's trial is as farcical as the show trial in Darkness at Noon or the Sacco and Vanzetti case - but Dorothy and The Wizard was written in 1908, so do the math... If Baum didn't display such overt anti-democratic tendencies, one might assume the trial in Dorothy and The Wizard was cautionary satire. But it's not. It's just an anomaly accidentally occurring in the middle of a squalid, serialized pablum with little (if anything) of value to say.

I'm open to criticism for being too demanding of L. Frank Baum. He - after all - may or may not have submitted his stories for moral scrutiny. However, children (both yesterday and today) have nearly limitless literary options. I do not think I am wrong for calling attention to how poorly executed Baum's body of work actually is, despite the sentimental halation.

*My son is learning to read. We're starting a "reading circle," hopefully to last for years, in which all three of us read together. Oz is a logical beginning because of the all-ages nature of the MGM film, the cultural necessity, and the tie-ins with targeted marketing, ranging from comic books to Happy Meal toys.

[Hadi Naboulsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that was MEH
Met some new people and that's more characters to bear in mind for the next sequels.
But like, there's too much new adventures and new worlds to keep the track. I became quite tired of these new encounters and new rows and discoveries. Can't they just settle down and make some inside war? 😂😂
That's why I gave it a 3, it became quite boring but not entirely dull. It's moderately bearable, I'm still reading the next sequels anyway.
And let me just get this thought out:
Why is this freaking little girl called Dorothy Gale always wandering off to new worlds like some mini-tyrant who imposes its inhabitants to treat her like a queen!!!! And if not well She will innocently burn them in hell???? Like what the heck is this immoral colonial approach doing in these children stories? What did the Mangaboos ever do to deserve this? YOU came and destroyed their country and killed their king (not that they're too innocent to be honest). And what about the Gargoyles? Imposing prejudice about these heartless creatures doesn't justify burning their homeland. (Not that they're actually not heartless either, I hated them too!)
It's exactly like the world we live in! Imposing illusions of righthood and righteousness when implying marring other civilisations' livelihood.
I was really surprised by how it's reverberating with examples of our lives, especially the the political modalities and the human instinct!! It's basically about how some people choose to be ruled upon and glorifies whatever that ruler likes. Would Ozma easily create a new royal title out of nowhere to honor the sawhorse who won a little marathon?
But anyways, it's a children book and I like the Oz Vibes.

Plus, I HATEDDDDD that horrid cat called EURIKA and JIM the horse. Just couldn't stand them!

And it's disturbingly savage and heartless🤣
()
“I'm glad of that," said Jim; "for I, also, have a conscience, and it tells me not to crush in your skull with a blow of my powerful hoof."
If he thought to frighten the striped beast by such language he was mistaken. The Tiger seemed to smile, and winked one eye slowly.
"You have a good conscience, friend Horse," it said, "and if you attend to its teachings it will do much to protect you from harm. Some day I will let you try to crush in my skull, and afterward you will know more about tigers than you do now"
()
Like what the heck?
And by the way I gathered a lot of questions:
>>Where the heck is Jack Pumpkinhead?? ( Although he figured in one of the pictures in the ceremony)

>>Why is the wizard of Oz in terms with Ozma when he was the one plotting her abduction with Old Mombie?
We need answers M. Baum?

Plus there was absolutely No plot after she went back to Oz but its Ok cuz I needed the oz vibes. (I said that again)
And What with the good witch of the north?

And here are some passages I liked:

-->"They now separated to prepare for the sad ceremony; for whenever an appeal is made to law sorrow is almost certain to follow—even in a fairyland like Oz.”

-->"If your thoughts were any good they wouldn't become confused," remarked the Scarecrow, earnestly. "My thoughts are always——"

"Is this a trial of thoughts, or of kittens?" demanded the Woggle-Bug.”


-->“Then say something sensible," retorted the kitten. "Tell them it would be foolish for me to eat the piglet, because I had sense enough to know it would raise a row if I did. But don't try to make out I'm too innocent to eat a fat piglet if I could do it and not be found out. I imagine it would taste mighty good".


Off to the next!

[Hawraa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I finished book 3 (Ozma of Oz), which I enjoyed very much, I wondered if that might be the pinnacle of the series and book 4 makes me wonder that even more.

There wasn’t really a plot to this book—just a road trip with Dorothy and the Wizard and some new characters and a series of encounters with various people and creatures. The last five or six chapters were just padding—recapping the first three books and then random chapters about the new characters. I skimmed a good portion of that.

The most irritating part of this book was how Baum completely rewrote what had been established in book 2 about the Wizard’s involvement in Ozma’s kidnapping. I guess Baum decided he wanted the Wizard back as a character and decided to ignore the fact that the Wizard had conspired with a witch to kidnap Ozma so he could have the throne of Oz.

Also, and I feel sort of guilty saying this, but I think I don’t like Dorothy.

Ranked from favorite to least, up to this point in the series:

1. Ozma of Oz
2. The Land of Oz
3. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*
4. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

*I’m kind of relieved that I didn’t care for DatWiO. I’m happy that the original classic book isn’t at the bottom of my list anymore.

[J. Boo · Rating 3 out of 5]

After having read two Ozes recently that I'm almost certain I didn't read as a child, my impression that I had read through the entire series seems incorrect.

Quick plot summary: Dorothy, a generic boy, and a horse are earthquaked from California into non-Ozian lands, where they meet again with the Wizard, and have some more-violent-than-I-remember-this-series-including adventures before winding up in Oz. Also, adorable piglets, who I can't recall showing up in any later books. (Not that I necessarily would remember them after so many years...)

[Tarissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

How fun! Due to an earthquake, Dorothy (and friends) fall through a crack in the ground, and they fall deep into the earth's core. There she discovers new fairy lands for herself.

Lots of intrigue in this Oz volume. Even – gasp! – an accusation of murder is rung out through the land of Oz. My, my!

I also liked how a little bit more was explained about how Oz became the leader of the land, being history that not even Dorothy knew previously.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of super cool, imaginative ideas strung together by a thin plot. All of the favorite characters make it into the story by the end. Eh, my son enjoyed it.

Fun fact, during a murder trial I got to explain both murder and trials...sweet.

[Stefani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kept falling asleep so not sure what I listened to. Must go back to it :/

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

A darker story than the first three in the series:

https://perfectretort.blogspot.com/20...