The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa

by Ruth Plumly Thompson

Genres: Childrens

124 pages, hardcover

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

An avid reader of Baum's books and a lifelong children's writer, Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began her writing career in 1914 when she took a job with the Philadelphia Public Ledger; she wrote a weekly children's column for the newspaper. She had already published her first children's book, The Perhappsy Chaps, and her second, The Princess of Cozytown, was pending publication when William Lee, vice president of Baum's publisher Reilly & Lee, solicited Thompson to continue the Oz series. (Rumors among fans that Thompson was Baum's niece were untrue.) Between 1921 and 1939, she wrote one Oz book a year. (Thompson was the primary supporter of her widowed mother and invalid sister, so that the annual income from the Oz books was important for her financial circumstances.)

Thompson's contributions to the Oz series are lively and imaginative, featuring a wide range of colorful and unusual characters. However, one particular theme repeats over and over throughout her novels, with little variation. Typically in each of Thompson's Oz novels, a child (usually from America) and a supernatural companion (usually a talking animal), while traveling through Oz or one of the neighboring regions, find themselves in an obscure community where the inhabitants engage in a single activity. The inhabitants of this community then capture the travelers, and force them to participate in this same activity.

Another major theme has elderly characters, most controversially, the Good Witch of the North, being restored to "marriageable" age, possibly because Thompson herself never married. She had a greater tendency toward the use of romantic love stories (which Baum usually avoided in his fairy tales, with about 4 exceptions). While Baum's child protagonists tended to be little girls, Thompson's were boys. She emphasized humor to a greater extent than Baum did, and always considered her work for children, whereas Baum, while first and foremost considering his child audience, knew that his readership comprised all ages.

Thompson's last Oz story, The Enchanted Island of Oz(1976), was not originally written as an Oz book.

Reviews

[Elisabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow.
Here's the thing. Where it's good, it's really good. But where it's bad, it's reeeeally bad.

When it comes to racism, this book makes all the other Thompson Oz books look peachy by comparison. I'm going to tell you about it, so if you don't want to know, skip the next paragraph.

This is a summary of Chapter 7. Santa is on a voyage to find Christmas presents. So of course, he ends up on an island (Bombazooky) with black native people dressed in grass skirts and shells. It's not clear whether these people might be African, Polynesian, or Indian. It doesn't really matter because this is as racist as it gets against anyone on an island with dark skin. They are loudly declared to be cannibals before Santa and Jim ever speak to them. Then of course, we find that they really are cannibals who want to eat Santa and friends. Luckily Santa brought along some skipping ropes. They all start skipping away. The native people throw hundreds of spears at them, but they are protected by the ropes somehow and are able to skip away. And there's a dreadful illustration of the native people in the stereotypical Sambo style. There are also mentions of these "savages" and "cannibals" at the end of Chapter 6 and the beginning of Chapter 8.

So that's the part to skip if you're reading the book to children.

The rest of it is Mostly Harmless. They visit King Neptune under the sea, and they sail beyond the sunset (literally) to the Lost Islands where they find Rockaway Island with rocking horse animals and Doll Island full of live dolls. Lucky for Santa, all of these seemingly independent, sentient creatures and people want to be Christmas presents! This all smacks of colonialism and slavery, but it's 1926! What did you expect?

The best part of the book is probably the characters. Huggerumbo the polar bear is just great. Penny the penguin cook is fun, and Jimmy Christmas, the chimney sweep and identifying character, is a great kid (apart from shouting, "Cannibals! Cannibals!") Santa Claus is Santa Claus.

So yeah. Cute, but Yikes!

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another oddity to add to my bookshelf. I picked this up at an estate sale for 50 cents purely for the wacky cover, and I wasn't let down; it is definitely circa 1926 wacky. Thompson, who continued the Oz series after Baum's death, wrote this in the same vein as Baum's "Life and Adventures of Santa Claus," although the books are not related. It is weird and outrageous and probably only appreciated by Oz fans, of which I am not. (I haven't read any Oz books, but as a devotee of children's fiction I will try them someday.) As an aside, my copy is a 1980s reproduction with an introduction that provided useful historical background, but failed to acknowledge the somewhat racist tone (especially the illustrations) of the cannibals Santa and his crew meet on Bombazooky Island. At least that chapter was short!

[Orion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruth Plumly Thompson was hired by the publisher Reilly & Lee when L. Frank Baum died to continue writing books in his Oz series. She ended up writing almost twice as many Oz books as Baum did. So it is quite natural for Thompson to also try her hand at writing a children's book about Santa Claus, seeing as how Baum had written several. Originally published in 1926, and using the same illustrator she and Baum used for the Oz series, John R. Neill, The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa is a delightful fantasy adventure.

Just after Christmas one year, Santa decides to build a ship and go sailing in search of new and interesting toys for him to give to children. He has heard of The Lost Islands and the rumors that they have living dolls, and he wants to find the islands and bring back some of these fabulous dolls for the children next Christmas. Accompanying him on the adventure is an orphan named Jim who has come to live at Santa's North Pole Palace, a talking polar bear named Huggerumbo, and Penny the Penguin, who looks after Santa. They set sail for the Lost Islands with a cargo of toys and treats to trade for new toys that they might discover along the way. After many amusing adventures, they return with a hold full of new toys and the hope to sail again another year.

While the book can be read on its own and enjoyed as a post-Christmas adventure yarn for children who wonder what Santa does the rest of the year, this is most likely to appeal to folks like me who are devoted readers of the Oz series.

[Carolyn Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Especially loved the drawings by John R. Neill, which illustrate well, this light and entertaining story. Ruth Plumly Thompson continued the Oz stories, after the death of L. Frank Baum, the original author of "The Wizard of Oz" and many subsequent books.