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Trot & Cap'n Bill #2
Sky Island
Baum, L. Frank
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1912
50 people are currently reading
880 people want to read
About the author
L. Frank Baum
3,220 books2,779 followersalso 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 In addition to the 14 Oz books, Baum penned 41 other novels (not including four lost, unpublished novels), 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts.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).
* 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 In addition to the 14 Oz books, Baum penned 41 other novels (not including four lost, unpublished novels), 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts.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).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
November 11, 2018
Baum's work is often cited as the point where children's literature became 'safe' and lacking in genuine peril. He even states that this was his intention in the foreword to 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' (you've probably heard of that one).
I think he must've forgotten about this agenda in this book as the protagonists spend much of the book at risk of (a) being made slaves, (b) being thrown to their deaths off the side of the titular island and (c) being sliced in half by a bizarre full body guillotine!
I've read adult horror novels where the characters weren't in as much peril! :-)
I think he must've forgotten about this agenda in this book as the protagonists spend much of the book at risk of (a) being made slaves, (b) being thrown to their deaths off the side of the titular island and (c) being sliced in half by a bizarre full body guillotine!
I've read adult horror novels where the characters weren't in as much peril! :-)
October 2, 2021
This is the second book in a juvenile series that was intended to replace the OZ books. While it isn’t an actual OZ book, it takes place in the borderlands of OZ, which is good enough for me, especially since I have never been a reader of that land over the rainbow. Characters abound in this work as do many threatening travails which our young heroes must overcome.
Trot is a young girl living in California who happens to meet Button-Bright, a young lad who has flown to the coast from Philadelphia (“Phillydelphy”) via his magical umbrella. The two get together with Cap'n Bill, an old sea salt with a wooden leg, and the three decide to test the umbrella’s magic by asking it to take them to a nearby island. However, they have incorrectly given the island the wrong name, so when the umbrella hears, “Sky Island”, it takes them straight to a land in the sky, where the inhabitants are a bit…strange. One side of the land belongs to the Blues, who are ruled by a vicious king named, 'The Boolaroo', and he promptly imprisons the hapless trio with the idea of “patching” them (sawing them in half and then mixing the halves together). He also seizes the magical umbrella, so any chances of survival seem fairly grim for the castaway humans.
All is not lost, however. Some of the Blues are discontent with the reign of the Boolaroo, which gives Trot and company a slight chance of escape. The other side of the island is ruled by the Pinks, fatter and smaller versions of the Blues who are also more benign, albeit in a rather haphazard way. In between the two lands is The Fog Bank, which is ruled by giant frogs. Our heroes are going to have a difficult time if they are ever going to see California again!
This was fun, even though it’s been more than 100 years since it was written so I didn’t think the adventure would be very relevant. I was proven wrong, especially with the focus on each Sky Island population feeling fear against the other Sky Island population, based solely on their perception of skin colour. That’s still pretty relevant today. I enjoyed the way the Pinks were ruled by a Queen who had to endure poverty while her subjects lived the good life (something our own political rulers should look at) and there’s even a witch involved in all these escapades. At times, it felt as though Baum was reaching, as if he was worried he was losing his readers’ attention, so more weird stuff gets thrown into the mix. Still, it made the reading enjoyable and I did feel a bit like a child again, when imagination took one into other worlds. And I really wish I had a magic brolly, since it doesn’t rain enough here to ever use one for its primary purpose.
Book Season = Year Round (fly high and mind your eye)
Trot is a young girl living in California who happens to meet Button-Bright, a young lad who has flown to the coast from Philadelphia (“Phillydelphy”) via his magical umbrella. The two get together with Cap'n Bill, an old sea salt with a wooden leg, and the three decide to test the umbrella’s magic by asking it to take them to a nearby island. However, they have incorrectly given the island the wrong name, so when the umbrella hears, “Sky Island”, it takes them straight to a land in the sky, where the inhabitants are a bit…strange. One side of the land belongs to the Blues, who are ruled by a vicious king named, 'The Boolaroo', and he promptly imprisons the hapless trio with the idea of “patching” them (sawing them in half and then mixing the halves together). He also seizes the magical umbrella, so any chances of survival seem fairly grim for the castaway humans.
All is not lost, however. Some of the Blues are discontent with the reign of the Boolaroo, which gives Trot and company a slight chance of escape. The other side of the island is ruled by the Pinks, fatter and smaller versions of the Blues who are also more benign, albeit in a rather haphazard way. In between the two lands is The Fog Bank, which is ruled by giant frogs. Our heroes are going to have a difficult time if they are ever going to see California again!
This was fun, even though it’s been more than 100 years since it was written so I didn’t think the adventure would be very relevant. I was proven wrong, especially with the focus on each Sky Island population feeling fear against the other Sky Island population, based solely on their perception of skin colour. That’s still pretty relevant today. I enjoyed the way the Pinks were ruled by a Queen who had to endure poverty while her subjects lived the good life (something our own political rulers should look at) and there’s even a witch involved in all these escapades. At times, it felt as though Baum was reaching, as if he was worried he was losing his readers’ attention, so more weird stuff gets thrown into the mix. Still, it made the reading enjoyable and I did feel a bit like a child again, when imagination took one into other worlds. And I really wish I had a magic brolly, since it doesn’t rain enough here to ever use one for its primary purpose.
Book Season = Year Round (fly high and mind your eye)
January 28, 2024
Surprisingly, THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ was not L. Frank Baum's favorite of his books; this one--SKY ISLAND--was. He wrote that he expected he would be most remembered for it, not for any of the Oz books.
SKY ISLAND features a villain so fearsome and loathsome that he makes the Wicked Witch of the West look like a sweet old lady by comparison. The Boolooroo (ruler) of the Blueskins is like a children's-book version of the Roman Emperor Caligula: emotionally stunted like a malignant infant, almost always in a frenzy of rage, but also creative when it comes to making others unhappy. He has a standard way of punishing people he does not like, which he calls "patching". One victim describes it: "They stand you under a big knife, which drops and slices you neatly in two—exactly in the middle. Then they match half of you to another person who has likewise been sliced—and there you are, patched to someone you don't care about and haven't much interest in. If your half wants to do something, the other half is likely to want to do something different, and the funny part of it is you don't quite know which is your half and which is the other half. It's a terrible punishment, ..."
SKY ISLAND has a much more logical and better structured plot than WIZARD, too. WIZARD, like many of the Oz books, is mostly a walking tour, the protagonists wandering around encountering local weirdos like the Kalidahs, the Fighting Trees, and the denizens of the dainty China Country, with a few structural elements thrown in to give it body, such as the goal of getting to the Emerald City, the mission to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, and the final journey to Glinda's castle after the Wizard leaves in his balloon. There's very little of this walking-tour stuff in SKY ISLAND! It's a tight, complex adventure with twists and subtleties in the plot. I don't want to give too much away, but plot-elements include the protagonists being enslaved by the Boolooroo and his family, then escaping and becoming military leaders of another, less-hostile community known as Pinkies, and finally, waging war against their former masters in order to recover their magical umbrella which they need in order to return home. One of their party gets captured in battle and needs to be rescued from the Boolooroo, who intends to patch him with a goat. When I first read this as a small child many decades ago, I think I read the whole book in one sitting.
SKY ISLAND features a villain so fearsome and loathsome that he makes the Wicked Witch of the West look like a sweet old lady by comparison. The Boolooroo (ruler) of the Blueskins is like a children's-book version of the Roman Emperor Caligula: emotionally stunted like a malignant infant, almost always in a frenzy of rage, but also creative when it comes to making others unhappy. He has a standard way of punishing people he does not like, which he calls "patching". One victim describes it: "They stand you under a big knife, which drops and slices you neatly in two—exactly in the middle. Then they match half of you to another person who has likewise been sliced—and there you are, patched to someone you don't care about and haven't much interest in. If your half wants to do something, the other half is likely to want to do something different, and the funny part of it is you don't quite know which is your half and which is the other half. It's a terrible punishment, ..."
SKY ISLAND has a much more logical and better structured plot than WIZARD, too. WIZARD, like many of the Oz books, is mostly a walking tour, the protagonists wandering around encountering local weirdos like the Kalidahs, the Fighting Trees, and the denizens of the dainty China Country, with a few structural elements thrown in to give it body, such as the goal of getting to the Emerald City, the mission to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, and the final journey to Glinda's castle after the Wizard leaves in his balloon. There's very little of this walking-tour stuff in SKY ISLAND! It's a tight, complex adventure with twists and subtleties in the plot. I don't want to give too much away, but plot-elements include the protagonists being enslaved by the Boolooroo and his family, then escaping and becoming military leaders of another, less-hostile community known as Pinkies, and finally, waging war against their former masters in order to recover their magical umbrella which they need in order to return home. One of their party gets captured in battle and needs to be rescued from the Boolooroo, who intends to patch him with a goat. When I first read this as a small child many decades ago, I think I read the whole book in one sitting.
February 7, 2018
A little bit of Oz without actually being an Oz book. Much better than the first Captain Bill and Trot book.
October 26, 2018
A sequel to The Sea Fairies, and a much better story. Baum figured out how to write Trot - she is no longer rude, but still bold, outspoken, and honest. Button Bright shows up as well, and he is far more mature and interesting than in his early Oz appearances. The action packed plot works well, with plenty of satire and sly social commentary thrown in.
March 8, 2022
Okay, this isn't as Amazing as I'd remembered from my childhood, but I'm going to rate it a 4 anyway for nostalgia.
There's a certain amount of fantasy nonsense that's easy to overlook when you're a kid. For instance, Rosalie says at one point that she's only permitted to do one charm every three days; this plot device is necessary so the Pinkies don't immediately conquer the Blues in an anticlimactic battle. But after that, Rosalie performs several charms - conjuring up elaborate dinners and peering into the former Princess's dreams - without running into any of the time limitations she'd had before. There are other bits of silliness sprinkled throughout, but you don't go into a book like this looking for logic - not when the end result is going to be a little girl ruling over strange creatures in an island far up in the clouds.
I'd really loved Baum's off-the-charts creativity when I was young, and I think this is a particularly striking example. Baum himself thought that this was one of his best works, and I'd always agreed. I don't think I'd ever owned a copy myself, but I'd checked it out from the library on a regular basis, greedily returning to this world to drink in all the wonderful details.
Neill's illustrations are less engaging than I remember, but the Blues with their round bodies and weird corkscrew legs are still so fun to look at. I don't know if that was exactly how Baum pictured them, especially after reading L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz and discovering how much he complained about Neill's renditions of his characters - but they add their own level of whimsy to the text.
The poetry-spouting parrot was much more irritating this time around, and completely unnecessary. I'd remembered loving all of the Princesses' soft blue pets (a dog, a lamb, a bunny, a sheep, and a peacock), but they're barely present - for some reason, Baum only has this loud-mouthed parrot accompany Trot the whole way through. I wish his editors had suggested cutting out those scenes! If it's supposed to break up tense/dramatic scenes with humor, it really does not work. As Button-Bright irritably says near the end: "Stop it! I can't hear myself think."
Polychrome's appearance was nice - I've always liked her - and Button-Bright was very charming and matter-of-factly clever in this book, I think more so than in his Oz adventures. He and his magic umbrella mostly take the lead in the first half, but once Trot starts conquering countries, she controls the narrative. (Cap'n Bill, despite Trot's insistence that he Knows Everything, is fairly useless, other than leading a battle and then getting himself captured.)
There are some interesting musings on war and country-based prejudices and what the duties and privileges of a ruler should be; while it's buried in a bunch of magic and frills, Baum has always had a way of setting up thought-provoking, solid foundations for his worlds. I think that's something I'd always appreciated about his writing; it's plain-spoken and sometimes feels a little sloppily written, like he was rushing to meet a deadline (true, after reading his biography), but there's still heart and grit to his stories, and kids and adults alike can feel that substance.
This book is actually pretty disturbing, if you really think about it...the whole concept of patching as punishment is horrific, even if it is carried out in a fantasy world where being split in half by a gigantic knife doesn't strictly hurt. And both the Blues and the Pinkies are bloodthirsty; while the Pinkies are mostly portrayed as the "better" country, with a matriarchal society and more reasonable laws, they still try to throw Trot and her friends off the edge of their island, simply because the humans have the wrong color skins and don't belong.
I do like that while Trot leads the Pinkies into battle against the Blues - in order to depose a dictator and recover the magic umbrella so they can go home - not all the Blues are depicted as Evil to the Pinks' Good. The rightful ruler, Ghip-Ghisizzle, is kind and generous - not as smart as Rosalie, but a better leader than Tourmaline, who'd risen to that position due to hereditary traits, rather than an actual ability to govern (or even an interest in doing so).
Ghip-Ghisizzle befriends Trot and the others long before he has any idea that they can help him claim his throne, and that goodness turns out to work in his favor.
The best character, though, is probably the childishly evil Boolooroo. He's absolutely awful, of course, but he's hilarious, and such fun on the page. I think that's what makes this book so much better than Trot and Cap'n Bill's first adventure, The Sea Fairies - where everything was so one-note it got fairly dull to read. Their time under the ocean was pretty but boring, and the villain never got a chance to shine, or to display sufficient personality.
You definitely don't need to read that book as an introduction to these characters; other than a brief mention of the ring the mermaid queen gave Trot (which was useless in the sky), there's really no sense at all that this is their second experience in fairyland.
What's kind of funny is that their extended undersea absence was explained away by the mermaid queen putting Trot's mother to sleep until they returned, so she wouldn't notice (a method that presents its own problems). This time, no one bothered, and Trot just cheerfully announces she's back, seemingly without her mother caring all that much that she was gone for probably a week or two?
Trot's mother was actually pretty unlikable, though; it's an odd choice, and I'm not sure why Baum made her so cruel to Cap'n Bill. I suppose she doesn't particularly like having her husband away on a ship for months on end, while she's stuck with this old sailor she hardly seems to like.
I wonder if Baum had ever planned to write more about Button-Bright's family, and why they were in possession of such a powerful umbrella. I know he was trying to split off into Trot and Cap'n Bill stories, until he got dragged back into Oz and brought them with him, but it would've been interesting to see what else he could've done with these characters. Maybe we would've gotten another world as weird and wonderful as Sky Island.
There's a certain amount of fantasy nonsense that's easy to overlook when you're a kid. For instance, Rosalie says at one point that she's only permitted to do one charm every three days; this plot device is necessary so the Pinkies don't immediately conquer the Blues in an anticlimactic battle. But after that, Rosalie performs several charms - conjuring up elaborate dinners and peering into the former Princess's dreams - without running into any of the time limitations she'd had before. There are other bits of silliness sprinkled throughout, but you don't go into a book like this looking for logic - not when the end result is going to be a little girl ruling over strange creatures in an island far up in the clouds.
I'd really loved Baum's off-the-charts creativity when I was young, and I think this is a particularly striking example. Baum himself thought that this was one of his best works, and I'd always agreed. I don't think I'd ever owned a copy myself, but I'd checked it out from the library on a regular basis, greedily returning to this world to drink in all the wonderful details.
Neill's illustrations are less engaging than I remember, but the Blues with their round bodies and weird corkscrew legs are still so fun to look at. I don't know if that was exactly how Baum pictured them, especially after reading L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz and discovering how much he complained about Neill's renditions of his characters - but they add their own level of whimsy to the text.
The poetry-spouting parrot was much more irritating this time around, and completely unnecessary. I'd remembered loving all of the Princesses' soft blue pets (a dog, a lamb, a bunny, a sheep, and a peacock), but they're barely present - for some reason, Baum only has this loud-mouthed parrot accompany Trot the whole way through. I wish his editors had suggested cutting out those scenes! If it's supposed to break up tense/dramatic scenes with humor, it really does not work. As Button-Bright irritably says near the end: "Stop it! I can't hear myself think."
Polychrome's appearance was nice - I've always liked her - and Button-Bright was very charming and matter-of-factly clever in this book, I think more so than in his Oz adventures. He and his magic umbrella mostly take the lead in the first half, but once Trot starts conquering countries, she controls the narrative. (Cap'n Bill, despite Trot's insistence that he Knows Everything, is fairly useless, other than leading a battle and then getting himself captured.)
There are some interesting musings on war and country-based prejudices and what the duties and privileges of a ruler should be; while it's buried in a bunch of magic and frills, Baum has always had a way of setting up thought-provoking, solid foundations for his worlds. I think that's something I'd always appreciated about his writing; it's plain-spoken and sometimes feels a little sloppily written, like he was rushing to meet a deadline (true, after reading his biography), but there's still heart and grit to his stories, and kids and adults alike can feel that substance.
This book is actually pretty disturbing, if you really think about it...the whole concept of patching as punishment is horrific, even if it is carried out in a fantasy world where being split in half by a gigantic knife doesn't strictly hurt. And both the Blues and the Pinkies are bloodthirsty; while the Pinkies are mostly portrayed as the "better" country, with a matriarchal society and more reasonable laws, they still try to throw Trot and her friends off the edge of their island, simply because the humans have the wrong color skins and don't belong.
I do like that while Trot leads the Pinkies into battle against the Blues - in order to depose a dictator and recover the magic umbrella so they can go home - not all the Blues are depicted as Evil to the Pinks' Good. The rightful ruler, Ghip-Ghisizzle, is kind and generous - not as smart as Rosalie, but a better leader than Tourmaline, who'd risen to that position due to hereditary traits, rather than an actual ability to govern (or even an interest in doing so).
Ghip-Ghisizzle befriends Trot and the others long before he has any idea that they can help him claim his throne, and that goodness turns out to work in his favor.
The best character, though, is probably the childishly evil Boolooroo. He's absolutely awful, of course, but he's hilarious, and such fun on the page. I think that's what makes this book so much better than Trot and Cap'n Bill's first adventure, The Sea Fairies - where everything was so one-note it got fairly dull to read. Their time under the ocean was pretty but boring, and the villain never got a chance to shine, or to display sufficient personality.
You definitely don't need to read that book as an introduction to these characters; other than a brief mention of the ring the mermaid queen gave Trot (which was useless in the sky), there's really no sense at all that this is their second experience in fairyland.
What's kind of funny is that their extended undersea absence was explained away by the mermaid queen putting Trot's mother to sleep until they returned, so she wouldn't notice (a method that presents its own problems). This time, no one bothered, and Trot just cheerfully announces she's back, seemingly without her mother caring all that much that she was gone for probably a week or two?
Trot's mother was actually pretty unlikable, though; it's an odd choice, and I'm not sure why Baum made her so cruel to Cap'n Bill. I suppose she doesn't particularly like having her husband away on a ship for months on end, while she's stuck with this old sailor she hardly seems to like.
I wonder if Baum had ever planned to write more about Button-Bright's family, and why they were in possession of such a powerful umbrella. I know he was trying to split off into Trot and Cap'n Bill stories, until he got dragged back into Oz and brought them with him, but it would've been interesting to see what else he could've done with these characters. Maybe we would've gotten another world as weird and wonderful as Sky Island.
September 9, 2024
Not in Oz... Yet another great story with such charismatic characters like Trot, Cap'n Bill, and everybody's favorite Philadelphia boy, Button-Bright.
Everything in this story surprised me. Even when I knew small facts about it... Like the arrival of Polychrome, and Trot coronation as [not a princess as I thought but] Queen of the Pink Country, then Queen of the Sky Island.
Mr. Baum had such a way to tell stories that, so far, the few Royal Historians who succeeded him aren't being able to do. I think this story is ambitious and so original at the same time.
I never had hate such a villain as the Boolooroo. He was indeed wicked, mischievous, and easy to hate.
Although there was no other mention of Fredjim Jinksjone and Jimfred Jonesjinks, I really hope they got them both back to normal.
This book has one of the happiest and most satisfying endings. I just loved it.
Everything in this story surprised me. Even when I knew small facts about it... Like the arrival of Polychrome, and Trot coronation as [not a princess as I thought but] Queen of the Pink Country, then Queen of the Sky Island.
Mr. Baum had such a way to tell stories that, so far, the few Royal Historians who succeeded him aren't being able to do. I think this story is ambitious and so original at the same time.
I never had hate such a villain as the Boolooroo. He was indeed wicked, mischievous, and easy to hate.
Although there was no other mention of Fredjim Jinksjone and Jimfred Jonesjinks, I really hope they got them both back to normal.
This book has one of the happiest and most satisfying endings. I just loved it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2022
This is far better than the first in this series and one I'll reread in the future! I particularly enjoyed the commentary and of course, the appearance of characters from the Oz universe!
November 8, 2025
This was another great adventure with Trot and Captain Bill, featuring a few more Oz characters. There was definitely some potential in a longer series with these characters.
July 6, 2022
I'm very upset with my childhood self for thinking this book was awesome
April 22, 2015
I enjoy an occasional dip into Baum's fantasy world. I love his world building skills, and his stories charm me when I need a diversion. They champion great virtues like love, faithfulness, and kindness, and this story is no different. I really like Cap'n Bill, and Trot is a lot of fun. Button Bright actually owns and exercises brains in this story, which I find refreshing. I read the Kindle version, which has no illustrations.
July 7, 2025
I also enjoyed this more than the Oz series. I liked the adventure more than the first one, and the plot was a bit better.
August 23, 2025
Sky Island is my favorite Baum book outside of his famous Oz series. Baum tried to launch a new fantasy world with this and its previous book The Sea Fairies after he intended to close the Oz canon with book six (The Emerald City of Oz). But these sadly just didn’t commercially fly the way Oz did, so this was the last of Trot and Cap’n Bill’s adventures—until Baum worked them into Oz with book nine (The Scarecrow of Oz).
This book is similar to Oz with curious creatures (Blueskins and Pinkies), magic objects (flying umbrella and ring of invisibility), and a classic trip to wild fantasy lands (the titular Sky Island) and home again. I loved all that. But what most elevates this book for me are the number of philosophical, ethical parts to mull on:
- “Patching,” the Boolooroo’s cruel practice of slicing persons in half and reattaching the halves with another sliced person so the two are blended. “[T]here you are, patched to someone you don't care about and haven't much interest in. If your half wants to do something, the other half is likely to want to do something different, and the funny part of it is you don't quite know which is your half and which is the other half. It’s a terrible punishment.” Beyond just the physical brutality of it, imagine the identity complex. This is wild. And gross.
- “Passing Away” (distinguished from death), a willful marching through the Arch of Phinis into the Great Blue Grotto. This fits with the not-always-consistent Ozian principle that no one dies in fairyland. But how does aging work? And what happens at a person’s “end”?
- Humble Rule, as shown by Queen Tourmaline: “I am a mere agent to direct the laws, which are the Will of the People, and am only a public servant, obliged constantly to guard the welfare of my subjects. … The Ruler, be it king or queen, has absolute power to rule, but no riches — no high station — no false adulation. The people have the wealth and honor, for it is their due. The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order." Solid wisdom. Maybe we could learn a thing or two here, eh?
- War From Perspectives: “The Sunrise Tribe claimed that everyday the sun greeted them first of all, which proved they were the most important; but, on the other hand, the Sunset Tribe claimed that the sun always deserted the other tribe and came to them, which was evidence that they were the most attractive people. On Sky Island—at least on the Pink side—the sun arose in wonderful splendor, but also it set in a blaze of glory, and so there were arguments on both sides and for want of something better to argue about.” What does it say about me that this made me chuckle? It’s only too true.
- Skin Color. My edition includes an added modern preface addressing concerns about racism and skin color in the text, noting that “a creature’s skin—whether that creature is pink or blue or green or any other color—should not determine who has authority over whom.” While this is absolutely true, I’m not convinced this is properly part of Baum’s story. (SPOILER ALERT!) Even though the Pinkies are ruled by law by whomever has the lightest skin, this is a plot device to advance the story, not encourage any racial hierarchies. Baum’s Blueskins and Pinkies are based on contrasting sky colors, not parallels to lighter or darker human skin tones. Kids (and adults, for goodness sake) may benefit from discussion on skin color in the context of a nonthreatening fantasy context like this. At the same time, let’s be careful not to read too far into books things that aren’t there.
Overall, for fans of Oz, Sky Island is a fun fantasy companion well worth the trip, above even most of the Oz books. It can be picked up as a standalone, but if you’re reading more from Baum, it gives added context to read it after The Emerald City of Oz when it was chronologically published—or at least before The Scarecrow of Oz, where Trot and Cap’n Bill join Oz. Enjoy! Now where did I put my umbrella…
This book is similar to Oz with curious creatures (Blueskins and Pinkies), magic objects (flying umbrella and ring of invisibility), and a classic trip to wild fantasy lands (the titular Sky Island) and home again. I loved all that. But what most elevates this book for me are the number of philosophical, ethical parts to mull on:
- “Patching,” the Boolooroo’s cruel practice of slicing persons in half and reattaching the halves with another sliced person so the two are blended. “[T]here you are, patched to someone you don't care about and haven't much interest in. If your half wants to do something, the other half is likely to want to do something different, and the funny part of it is you don't quite know which is your half and which is the other half. It’s a terrible punishment.” Beyond just the physical brutality of it, imagine the identity complex. This is wild. And gross.
- “Passing Away” (distinguished from death), a willful marching through the Arch of Phinis into the Great Blue Grotto. This fits with the not-always-consistent Ozian principle that no one dies in fairyland. But how does aging work? And what happens at a person’s “end”?
- Humble Rule, as shown by Queen Tourmaline: “I am a mere agent to direct the laws, which are the Will of the People, and am only a public servant, obliged constantly to guard the welfare of my subjects. … The Ruler, be it king or queen, has absolute power to rule, but no riches — no high station — no false adulation. The people have the wealth and honor, for it is their due. The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order." Solid wisdom. Maybe we could learn a thing or two here, eh?
- War From Perspectives: “The Sunrise Tribe claimed that everyday the sun greeted them first of all, which proved they were the most important; but, on the other hand, the Sunset Tribe claimed that the sun always deserted the other tribe and came to them, which was evidence that they were the most attractive people. On Sky Island—at least on the Pink side—the sun arose in wonderful splendor, but also it set in a blaze of glory, and so there were arguments on both sides and for want of something better to argue about.” What does it say about me that this made me chuckle? It’s only too true.
- Skin Color. My edition includes an added modern preface addressing concerns about racism and skin color in the text, noting that “a creature’s skin—whether that creature is pink or blue or green or any other color—should not determine who has authority over whom.” While this is absolutely true, I’m not convinced this is properly part of Baum’s story. (SPOILER ALERT!) Even though the Pinkies are ruled by law by whomever has the lightest skin, this is a plot device to advance the story, not encourage any racial hierarchies. Baum’s Blueskins and Pinkies are based on contrasting sky colors, not parallels to lighter or darker human skin tones. Kids (and adults, for goodness sake) may benefit from discussion on skin color in the context of a nonthreatening fantasy context like this. At the same time, let’s be careful not to read too far into books things that aren’t there.
Overall, for fans of Oz, Sky Island is a fun fantasy companion well worth the trip, above even most of the Oz books. It can be picked up as a standalone, but if you’re reading more from Baum, it gives added context to read it after The Emerald City of Oz when it was chronologically published—or at least before The Scarecrow of Oz, where Trot and Cap’n Bill join Oz. Enjoy! Now where did I put my umbrella…
October 1, 2019
The audio book was from Librivox, but had a different cover.
This book is full of magical adventures similar to those in L Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz. There are rather scary bits, but in the same way as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Oz book.
A young boy arrives suddenly near a young girl who is gazing out over the Pacific Ocean. As they introduce themselves, they find they both have nicknames. He is called “Button-Bright” and she is called “Trot”. It turns out that his sudden arrival seemingly out of nowhere has been through travel by his magic umbrella! Although he is from Philadelphia, he has been first to Buffalo, then to Chicago, and on to see the Pacific. All he has to do is open the tatty umbrella and ask it to take him somewhere. He found the magic umbrella in his attic. The children go to Trot’s house, meeting Cap’n Bill who lodges at Trot’s house and then meeting Trot’s mother.
After Button-Bright has a snack, they tell the Cap’n about the umbrella. After some discussion and some handiwork by Cap’n, and then some practice, they have rigged up a way for the three of them to travel. They decide to travel to an island which can be seen off in the distance. Cap’n and Trot call the Island “Sky Island”. So, Button-Bright asks the umbrella to Sky Island.
They head off. The umbrella goes so swiftly, that they soon near the Island. But instead of getting ready to land, the umbrella goes higher and soars on far beyond the Island! After some discussion when they tell Button-Bright the proper name of the Island, he explains that the umbrella goes to the exact place he names. And because the name was not Sky Island, they are headed to the real one, wherever that may be!
And so the adventure has begun. They get in some scrapes- the umbrella is confiscated - and have to use their heads to figure out how to get out of the various troubles. The inhabitants are rather strange in very many ways and not at all happy to have visitors to Sky Island. But one or two become friends who give their help and by the end are given much needed help by the 3 adventurers.
Some of the readers were ok, but some made understanding the words very difficult.
This book is full of magical adventures similar to those in L Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz. There are rather scary bits, but in the same way as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Oz book.
A young boy arrives suddenly near a young girl who is gazing out over the Pacific Ocean. As they introduce themselves, they find they both have nicknames. He is called “Button-Bright” and she is called “Trot”. It turns out that his sudden arrival seemingly out of nowhere has been through travel by his magic umbrella! Although he is from Philadelphia, he has been first to Buffalo, then to Chicago, and on to see the Pacific. All he has to do is open the tatty umbrella and ask it to take him somewhere. He found the magic umbrella in his attic. The children go to Trot’s house, meeting Cap’n Bill who lodges at Trot’s house and then meeting Trot’s mother.
After Button-Bright has a snack, they tell the Cap’n about the umbrella. After some discussion and some handiwork by Cap’n, and then some practice, they have rigged up a way for the three of them to travel. They decide to travel to an island which can be seen off in the distance. Cap’n and Trot call the Island “Sky Island”. So, Button-Bright asks the umbrella to Sky Island.
They head off. The umbrella goes so swiftly, that they soon near the Island. But instead of getting ready to land, the umbrella goes higher and soars on far beyond the Island! After some discussion when they tell Button-Bright the proper name of the Island, he explains that the umbrella goes to the exact place he names. And because the name was not Sky Island, they are headed to the real one, wherever that may be!
And so the adventure has begun. They get in some scrapes- the umbrella is confiscated - and have to use their heads to figure out how to get out of the various troubles. The inhabitants are rather strange in very many ways and not at all happy to have visitors to Sky Island. But one or two become friends who give their help and by the end are given much needed help by the 3 adventurers.
Some of the readers were ok, but some made understanding the words very difficult.
June 20, 2021
Spoilers ahoy.
This is the direct sequel to the saccharine _The Sea Fairies_, and it is, I'm glad to say, much better, more Ozzish (though it does not take place in Oz). Trot and Cap'n BIll meet Button-Bright, from _The Road to Oz_, who has arrived in California by means of a magic umbrella. Cap'n Bill rigs the thing up so that it can carry three, and they head off to an island nearby for a picnic.
Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for the story, the name they know the island by, "Sky Island", is not its real name - but there _is_ an island in the sky by that name, whose inhabitants can't imagine anything living on the surface of the Earth. Sky Island is divided in half by a mysterious fog bank. Evreything on one side is blue, and on the other side pink. Our heroes land on the blue side, where the Boolooroo - ruler of the land - has them taken prisoner. His favorite way of punishing people who offend him is to have them sliced in half, top to bottom, and then joined to the halves of another foe of the Boolooroo, thus producing two people with mismatched halves.
They escape, without the umbrella but with a new friend (a blue parrot who speaks in doggerel), and, with the help of a giant frog, make it through the fog to the pink side of the island, where the law says that the palest pink female must be the Queen. Well, Trot is paler than the current Queen, so she becomes Queen of the Pinkies. The Pinkies seem descent sorts; and so do the Blues, except for the royal family. So Queen Trot decides to invade the Blue side, unseat the Boolooroo, and get the umbrealla back so they can go home.
There are a number of rather unexpected plot twists, but in the end they put the rightful Boolooroo on his throne, set a new Queen in charge of the Pinkies, and go home.
This is the direct sequel to the saccharine _The Sea Fairies_, and it is, I'm glad to say, much better, more Ozzish (though it does not take place in Oz). Trot and Cap'n BIll meet Button-Bright, from _The Road to Oz_, who has arrived in California by means of a magic umbrella. Cap'n Bill rigs the thing up so that it can carry three, and they head off to an island nearby for a picnic.
Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for the story, the name they know the island by, "Sky Island", is not its real name - but there _is_ an island in the sky by that name, whose inhabitants can't imagine anything living on the surface of the Earth. Sky Island is divided in half by a mysterious fog bank. Evreything on one side is blue, and on the other side pink. Our heroes land on the blue side, where the Boolooroo - ruler of the land - has them taken prisoner. His favorite way of punishing people who offend him is to have them sliced in half, top to bottom, and then joined to the halves of another foe of the Boolooroo, thus producing two people with mismatched halves.
They escape, without the umbrella but with a new friend (a blue parrot who speaks in doggerel), and, with the help of a giant frog, make it through the fog to the pink side of the island, where the law says that the palest pink female must be the Queen. Well, Trot is paler than the current Queen, so she becomes Queen of the Pinkies. The Pinkies seem descent sorts; and so do the Blues, except for the royal family. So Queen Trot decides to invade the Blue side, unseat the Boolooroo, and get the umbrealla back so they can go home.
There are a number of rather unexpected plot twists, but in the end they put the rightful Boolooroo on his throne, set a new Queen in charge of the Pinkies, and go home.
December 3, 2019
This would've been a 4-star book if it weren't for the Queen of the Blueskins, whose never-ending Solitaire game speaks to my cold, dead gamer soul. Either way, Sky Island is much, much better than The Sea Fairies was. I'm pretty sure Trot, Cap'n Bill, and Button Bright come closer to dying much more often than anybody in any Oz book. This one actually reminds me of a condensed version of the Oz series, where some Earth-dwellers get whisked away to a fantasy world that's been color-coded for your convenience, wind up taking over, and then go home. It's like if The Wonderful Wizard of Oz were even further self-contained, had a sense of danger about it, and you didn't have to worry about reading thirteen sequels because kids weren't ganging up on Frank Baum the entire time.
April 6, 2024
I found both this and the prequel, The Sea Fairies, quick reads as they were hard for me to put down.
Fantasy adventures, they are clever in the word play and funny, though I question if they can be read by younger children with the aspects of prisoners, slavery, punishment, and prejudice.
The recurring themes in this and the prequel of the nature of man, prejudices, war, what the duties and privileges of a ruler are or should be were thought provoking. Given that this was written in 1912, I especially liked the strong women characters and egalitarian leanings that seem to be in his books and wondered whether that was from the influence of his mother and/or other women in his life.
The lovely cover and illustrations add to the book although I read that Baum felt that the illustrator took liberties in them.
Baum was a very prolific writer and an interesting man, for sure.
Fantasy adventures, they are clever in the word play and funny, though I question if they can be read by younger children with the aspects of prisoners, slavery, punishment, and prejudice.
The recurring themes in this and the prequel of the nature of man, prejudices, war, what the duties and privileges of a ruler are or should be were thought provoking. Given that this was written in 1912, I especially liked the strong women characters and egalitarian leanings that seem to be in his books and wondered whether that was from the influence of his mother and/or other women in his life.
The lovely cover and illustrations add to the book although I read that Baum felt that the illustrator took liberties in them.
Baum was a very prolific writer and an interesting man, for sure.
August 10, 2018
I’ll be honest, I didn’t read this one as a kid because Sea Fairies bored me to tears – nothing much happened. Baum oscillates between telling a really compelling story in a fairytale land (usually revolving around getting home) and just regaling readers with a fantastic travelogue that has no point. But as part of my grand 2018 Oz reread, I picked this one up.
I think it skyrocketed near the top of my favorite Baum books, because it’s absolutely delightful. Baum restrains himself to one land with three kingdoms (color-coded and very reminiscent of Oz). There’s a compelling villain in the Boolooroo, and some hilarious satire of royalty. Button Bright isn’t as obnoxiously useless as he becomes in later books, and Trot is a fun and spunky heroine.
I think it skyrocketed near the top of my favorite Baum books, because it’s absolutely delightful. Baum restrains himself to one land with three kingdoms (color-coded and very reminiscent of Oz). There’s a compelling villain in the Boolooroo, and some hilarious satire of royalty. Button Bright isn’t as obnoxiously useless as he becomes in later books, and Trot is a fun and spunky heroine.
July 2, 2018
This was our first foray into Baum's non-Oz books. Sky Island features several characters from the deep Oz backstory, including Trot, Captain Bill, and Button Bright (who didn't feel the same here - I don't think he said "don't know" even once - and also we found out his real name and where he's from, which I didn't really need to know). I liked the story overall, including Baum's sly commentary on government (how he depicts the Blues versus the Pinkies), but my daughter seemed to feel it was too long, and unlike with Oz stories, she was ready to be done and move on to something else. Overall, recommended for serious Oz fans only.
August 19, 2018
I’m giving this book 5 stars on behalf of my 8 year old son. He loved it so much he was upset when we finished it so the sign of a good story. On a personal level I thought this was a much better read than the previous Trot & Cap’n Bill story, Sea Fairies and dealt with some interesting and still relevant themes mainly racial equality. In true L. Frank Baum style the day was saved by an unlikely young heroine with a big heart. There is also a cameo appearance from Polychrome the Rainbow’s daughter which all Oz series fans will appreciate.
January 27, 2025
A charming addition to Baum’s plethora a fairyland books. This one has as much appeal as some of the best of his Oz series, with humor and heart. I always enjoyed Trot and Cap’n Bill in their Oz exploits and this here is proof (even more so than in their 1st outing in The Sea Fairies), that they deserved to make the leap to the land of Oz. Great to see classics like Button Bright and Polychrome as well. Also, Queen Tourmaline’s description of leadership is even more applicable now, as it was back in 1912. If you enjoy light fantasy or the Oz series, this is a can’t miss read.
October 11, 2022
3 stars for the book, but the narration bumped this one up to 4 stars for me. A fun adventure story the whole family can enjoy, and one that doesn't require to have read other books in the series, or the Oz series.
November 22, 2022
Not as good as the Sea Faeries. It's still interesting though. It's a shame that the Trot and Cap'n Bill books weren't an instant success back in the day. I would have loved to see more of their adventures (outside of the Oz books).
November 15, 2023
This is in my top 3 by Baum. The adventures in this man's mind just amaze me. He can be a bit overly verbose but there's definitely gems in his writings. Though many of his books are part of a series it wouldn't be too confusing to pick and choose and skip around.
May 22, 2020
That was not the same Button-Bright I was delighted with in his initial Oz introduction!
Also is it kind of a classic white people colonial story? 😕🤷🏼♀️
Also is it kind of a classic white people colonial story? 😕🤷🏼♀️
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
November 28, 2022
Baum's extra Oz tales are fun. This one take you to interesting places with conflicts between the Pink and Blue creatures of Sky Island.
January 10, 2024
Who doesn't love Trot and Capt. Bill? Such a great story featuring some of my favorite Oz characters as well. So so lovely and fun.
September 19, 2024
Diversity win! The most surprisingly racist book you know believes in gender equality & invented body horror!
January 27, 2025
This book is fantastic! From the magnificent mind of L. Frank Baum comes a tale of an island in the sky. My imagination was invoked and I became immersed in this world while reading it.
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