The Lost Princess of Oz (Oz, #11) (2024)

I previously read this book in 5th grade and again, at least in part, in college. This is one of the best books in the Oz series, in spite of Ozma being a damsel in distress for almost the entire book. It takes a lot of people, not just any one person, to rescue her, so at least there is that. In fact, the book is so populated with characters that many go off and Baum doesn't even bother to follow them, so perhaps the book's biggest flaw is that Baum follows the relevant search parties to the exclusion of the other search parties (I guess Baum thought that The Shaggy Man and his brother and Ojo, Unc Nunkie, and Dr. Pipt had been featured too much recently to be rate more than a mention, whereas Scraps had caught the imagination of his correspondents). It might also have been better if Dorothy's transformation experiments with the magic belt had been shown unexplained until later, but perhaps Baum didn't want to make Dorothy seem too sinister, but these are minor. The book also has some pretty intense philosophical discussion that shows some of Baum's strongest influence from Lewis Carroll's constructions of logic, but the tone is different, and Baum's love of diversity comes through the strongest.

I actually thought it odd that no one has decided to handle it as an adaptation, with special effects fantasies being popular these days. Who wouldn't want to see the super-strong Frogman battling with a giant grey dove in a large domed palace made of wicker? Maybe when Marvel adapted the Baum books, Skottie Young didn't want to draw a wicker palace. John R. Neill doesn't try (he shows the castle only from a distance), but he does make a couple of gaffes with the text, such as dressing Button-Bright in 1917 American clothes rather than similarly to Ojo, but different colors, as described by the text, and showing a banner in a tower of Herku when the text specifically mentions that there is none.) The Herkus are a fine example of Baum being a better writer than Ruth Plumly Thompson. Not only is the episode relevant to the rest of the story, but neither the Thists nor the Herkus call for the bizarre conformity that Thompson and many Baum successors display in the quaint towns of Oz. The Thists don't mind when the Ozmites say that they cannot eat thistles, nor do the Herkus either enslave the Ozmites as they do the giants, nor do they force them to eat the zosozo that makes them so strong. Indeed, both are gracious and hospitable hosts, even if the Ozmites find the Thists annoying. (This edition makes the Thists the cover picture.) I wasn't crazy about Toto's complaint about his lost growl, but since it seems to come back naturally, it may just be that the humor didn't work too well on me.

Still, the Thists and the Herkus are both commentaries on autocratic governments and deserve to be looked at seriously, although of course humor is intended on a certain level, as well. I really enjoyed the class commentary as the Yip men accompany the Frogman and Cayke down the mesa, only to go back after their clothes get ripped protecting those of the Frogman and Cakye.

The Frogman has always been a controversial character--Eric Shanower even destroyed him in an Oziana story--but I found him intensely likable once he bathed in the Truth Pond. He wants to be as wise and learned the way he was once perceived, and seeks to come by it honestly once under the compulsion of the Truth Pond, previously seen in The Road to Oz. He would have made an excellent foil for Mr. H. M. Woggle-Bug T.E., who is mentioned only briefly in this book. When we return to the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman toward the end of the book, they have their usual bit about feeling superior to people made of meat, but how did they swallow Professor Woggle-Bug's pills, as it is implied that they do near the beginning of the book? I can easily imagine the Frogman trying to keep the Woggle-Bug honest and stop puffing himself up so much as they both continue their scholarly pursuits.

Perhaps the greatest element of the book is its themee of redemption as expressed through Ugu the Shoemaker. Vig, the Czarover of Herku, says that he would not call Ugu wicked, merely very ambitious. This leads to wicked behavior on his part, but he demonstrates an unwillingness to cause anyone serious harm, and the book ends with him realizing he is wrong and desiring to redeem himself. Having been the descendant of sorcerers, he was unhappy as a shoemaker, and this gives his character some motivation. Contrast him with the minor character of the ferryman, who was punished by the Tin Woodman for harming animals by being completely unable to communicate with them. This makes him unhappy around animals because it reminds him of his past cruelty. Some have dismissed the ferryman as an irrelevant episode, but it speaks to the book's overarching theme by contrasting a man who does evil to no purpose and one who does evil to advance himself and being unable to recognize it. I suspect he saw that in many an ambitious capitalist in our own world.

The live teddy bears, while surely an appeal to the book's youngest readers, give the book a contemporary feel, especially when the Big Lavender Bear threatens to send misbehaving subjects to American children--reminding us that Oz is not "once upon a time," but simply in a dimension invisible to us.

OzAThon Book 11

Well, the last one was not really an Oz Book at all and just adjusted to fit within the great scheme of things, this one is back to being about Oz through and through, yet it thankfully breaks the same old, same old formula.

What I mean is that we don’t have a person getting lost in Oz and encounter different parts and crazy inhabitants on their way and end up in the Emerald City with a big party, but something resembling an actual plot. I can’t remember the last time that actually happened.

And the plot is not even that uninteresting.

One morning Dorothy discovers that Ozma is missing, along with her magic picture, the Wizard‘s magic tool box and Glinda‘s all-knowing book. Parallel to that, in a different corner of Oz, a cook named Cayke is missing her magical frypan. Dorothy and group set out to find their missing Princess and magical items, while Cayke and her companion, the Frogman, do the same to find the frypan. For a while those two storylines run parallel, until they finally come together and mix in surprisingly well.

One thing that’s already a plus point from the beginning is Ozma‘s absence for most of the book, which leads to less praises of her awesomeness and smug behavior. I really needed that break from her. It also showcases that the characters are actually capable of doing something without relying too much on Little Miss Perfect.

The villain is relatively interesting, because he fulfills at least to some extant some of my favorite villain tropes, namely the matter of perception. He doesn’t see any evil in his doings and thinks he is right in his methods and doesn’t that make for more interesting conflicts? Sadly, Baum doesn’t really work with it as much as he could have, but whatever dude, I‘ll take that over confusing nonsense all day.

On the negative side, Baum again falls victim to the deus ex machina ending and I start to wonder if he simply never thought his stories through or just got bored along the way and wanted a fast, nice wrap up. The villain is defeated so easily and all the build up seems to be for nothing. An ending like this can work, but mostly when it’s played for laughs and not like it is written here. Basically, for eight books Dorothy has no clue how to properly use the magic belt until she suddenly does, because it’s convenient for the plot. Yeah, whatever.

There is also a whole ton of exposition and repetitions. I get to repeat some aspects of the story once in a while, and Baum always did that, but here he went overboard. I don’t need to be reintroduced to the characters every second chapter and thank you even kids can remember what happened like three chapter earlier, they are not that long.

Button-Bright is also back and I still have no f*cking clue why. His character serves no purpose, he isn’t funny or cute, he is just annoying and takes up space that could’ve been used for more interesting characters or plot points.

And finally, there is the stupidest side-plot yet, Toto loses his growl and then suddenly finds it again and it beats me why this is part of the book. It doesn’t fit into the narrative, makes no sense and doesn’t even go anywhere. The dog was a better character when still barked instead of talked.

Despite some huge criticism, I still say it’s one of the better books, and being it just for a real storyline and the lack of a stereotypical formula.

Doma Publishing's Wizard of Oz collection has taken me several years to read with my son at bedtime. It was interesting revisiting the texts that I read swiftly through my youth, as I was about his age when I read them and remembered little beyond some of the characters that don't appear in any of the books. I picked up a copy of this version since, for 99c, I could have the complete series along with "All the original artwork by the great illustrator W.W. Denslow (over 1,000 classic illustrations)", and to read the complete 14-book text at bedtime with all original color illustrations on my Kindle Fire knowing that there would be cross-linked tables of contents and no layout issues, it was worth my buck rather than taking them all out of the library. We read these books before bed at home and under the stars by a campfire in the forest, in a hotel in Montreal and in a seaside cottage in Nova Scotia, on a boat and in a car. We read it everywhere, thanks to the Kindle's mobility.

You may be reading this review on one of the individual pages for the original books on Goodreads or Amazon, and if so, all I did was cross-link the books along with the correct dates we read the original texts. The only book I did not cross-link with original dates was the Woggle-bug book, which if you know, is short. Instead, I counted that final book as the review for Doma's Kindle version. You may notice that some books have longer reading spans – probably for two reasons. One, I traded off reading with my wife sometimes, and two, sometimes we needed a little Baum break and read some other books. It did get a little old sometimes, and there are fourteen books totaling 3500 pages in their original library printing.

The first thing I think is worth mentioning is that when I first read these books, it was as a child would read them. I remember them being repetitive but familiar. Comforting and revealing. An antiquated adventure, but a serial adventure with recurring characters unparalleled in any other literature. As an adult with an MA in literature (and soon and MFA in fiction), I am actually somewhat unimpressed with the series. Baum wrote a whimsical set of tales, but they are torturously repetitive and would be easy to plug-and-play by replacing characters and moments with a computer to make an entirely new book. But, they are children's books, and we are completely enthralled and comforted by the familiar. Is not Shakespeare the same play-to-play structurally? Are not Pixar or Star Wars movies definitively archetypal in timing, execution, structure, and character so that they can be completely replaced and reapplied to a new story? Even the films – heck, even the trailers - are cut the same, and if you play them all at once, magic happens (see: youtube, "all star wars movies at once").

I suppose where the real magic of these books happens is in their origin. Baum wrote something completely original that took the world by storm and continues to be a whimsical American bellwether for children's fantasy. It is one of the original series specifically for children, spanning fourteen books written almost yearly and gobbled up by a hungry public. It still remains at the forefront of American culture in many revisits in Hollywood (let no one forget the horrific beauty that is Return To Oz) and capitalizing on nostalgia (as recently as six months ago I received a mailing from The Bradford Exchange that was selling original library-bound volumes signed by – get this – Baum's great-grandson... I love an autographed book if only for the idea of the magic it transmits even though it is somewhat meaningless, but maybe someone can convince me where the magic is in having it signed by a probably elderly great-grandchild who likely never met his great-grandfather?).

So, while some of the books were awesome and some of them were difficult to slog through, I have my favorites. I will also say that the introductions that each volume opens with were sweet letters from the author to his fans, and it was easy to tell that he truly, truly loved his job writing for children. He knew his audience, he knew what worked, and he sold books. Furthermore, I imagined with great sentimentality mailbags upon mailbags arriving at his house filled to the brim of letters from children all over the world, and the responsibility he probably felt to personally respond to each of them. For my career, that is the best anyone can hope for.

What follows is my (and my son's) short reviews of the individual books in the series.

The Original and Official Oz Books by L. Frank Baum
#1 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) READ November 26, 2013 – December 1, 2013
My Kid – At first I thought it was crazy, but then it started getting awesome. I remember the movie, but there's a lot of parts that are different.
Me – I mean, classic, right? The book pretty much follows the film almost entirely with few exceptions. In hindsight after finishing the entire series, it is worth nothing that it is considerably one of the best books in the series, while many others are of questionable quality.

#2 The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) READ December 1, 2013 – January 9, 2014
My Kid – It was scary... Jack Pumpkinhead and Tip escaped and it was really cool.
Me – This is one of the books Return to Oz was based from, The Gump and The Powder of Life coming into play to help Dorothy and Jack Pumpkinhead outwit Mombi. An enjoyable book, quite different than the first book but engineered beautifully with plot and characterization. Enjoyed this one. What was most engaging about this text was Ozma and Tip, and what this book says about gender and youth. I think there is a lot that can be examined about gender at birth and the fluidity of gender as a social construct, witch curse or no.

#3 Ozma of Oz (1907) READ January 9, 2014 – February 22, 2014
My Kid – The boat crashes and they have to ride in the box with the chicken... I like TikTok. They saved the Queen.
Me – This is the second book that Return to Oz was conceived from and a very engaging book. This one requires more understanding and construction of the Oz Universe including the transformation of several of our characters into ornaments and the outwitting of the Nome King in order to save our friends. This was one of my final favorites before the quality of the books fell, as far as I am concerned.

#4 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908) READ February 22, 2014 – August 12, 2014
My Kid – I kinda forgot this one. There was the vegetable people underground and nothing really happened?
Me – Yeah, this one was a bust for me. I think Baum was making some kind of satirical point lost to history... Or maybe the obvious non-referential one, but still, just seemed like the episodic nonsense that didn't have a point most of the time. Keep the beginning, I guess and then skip to the final third, and there's your story.

#5 The Road to Oz (1909) READ August 12, 2014 – February 22, 2015
My Kid – The love magnet was pretty awesome, and Dorothy meets the rainbow girl and Shaggy man... I guess I'll leave off there.
Me – Another one that I thought was a little redundant and repetitive without much of a point. They get lost, they make it back, there are some weird artifacts that help them... Meh. I did like the new characters, however, who make many more appearances in the future books. Shaggy Man and Polychrome are great.

#6 The Emerald City of Oz (1910) READ February 22, 2015 – September 14, 2015
My Kid – The Emerald City was cool and Dorothy was in charge. If I lived there I would sell it all and be rich. There was a war.
Me – This one was pretty good until the end, where everything was buttoned up (apologies, button bright) pretty quickly without there being much of a solid reason. The conflicts were all contrived and there were some more ridiculously ridiculous new characters who never showed up again in the series. A great diversion, but with little substance toward the end.

#7 The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913) READ September 14, 2015 – December 22, 2015
My Kid – It was pretty weird how the quilt doll became a patchwork girl and she was really funny. In the end, it didn't matter that they found all the stuff, so it was kinda crazy and funny.
Me – This was relatively silly. I enjoyed it, and the Patchwork Girl is a character I can really get behind as a foil to some of the other characters and somewhat mischievous. The plot is ridiculous, but the powder of life and the glass cat are somewhat illuminating elements of this text. Scraps made this a fun one.

#8 Tik-Tok of Oz (1914) READ December 22, 2015 – April 2, 2016
My Kid – The whole story of the shaggy man's brother being missing and ugly didn’t make sense, but... there was a war and Tik Tok was rescued. There was a man who was not as evil as the other army general guys. It was weird.
Me – This one was primarily about The Shaggy Man and his adventure to resolve a variety of political and interconnected issues happening surrounding everyone's messing around with the Nome King. There is a huge tube that goes through the center of the earth that everything centers on, and Shaggy is trying to get the Nome King to release his brother the whole time. There are a lot of characterization, detail, and plot errors in this that postdate some facts from the earlier books – which is kind of weird – and the intrigue surrounding the plot is somewhat complicating for kids. What I thought was the coolest element was the character of Quox, who passes more than a coincidental resemblance to Catbus from Miyazaki's Totoro.

#9 The Scarecrow of Oz (1915) READ April 2, 2016 – September 1, 2016
My Kid – First of all, there's a lot of people getting lost. Second, if I was in Jinxland, I think I would rather be back in oz.
Me – This one was interesting as it had little to do with The Scarecrow and was mainly about Button Bright, Cap'n Bill, and Trot. This one is probably the height of the ridiculousness, with little shallow plot item after little shallow plot item heaped upon one another. At the end, The Scarecrow has to (and succeeds) in recapturing Jinxland for Gloria, its rightful ruler, and returns to the Emerald City for a celebration. Eh...

#10 Rinkitink in Oz (1916) READ September 1, 2016 – December 1, 2016
My Kid – All these books have someone wicked in them and it's so crazy. I liked the name Kaliko, and the way Dorothy comes to the rescue of everyone being clever solves the problem. What's with all the problems? I feel like there's thousands.
Me – This one was pretty good, as it seemed to deviate from the regular universe of Oz and focus on a different set of locations and characters. It had a very Tolkienian feel in terms of plot, structure, and internal political commentary. It felt very different from the others, and most elements in the text had a point and a long-term purpose. I enjoyed this one.

#11 The Lost Princess of Oz (1917) READ December 1, 2016 – January 19, 2017
My Kid – First of all, they've gotta be responsible for the diamond pan, and that's why they lost it. They weren't responsible. At the end they searched for the tools and didn't need them and it was useless.
Me – Lost Princess was fun. It surrounded the story of Ozma being kidnapped and the Wizard, Button Bright, Trot, and Betsy Bobbin to go rescue her. Everything in this one felt a little random, but it all ties back together in the end. This one was pretty diversionary but not as bad as some of the others.

#12 The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918) READ January 19, 2017 – March 13, 2017
My Kid – Woot is a weird name, and everyone was changed to animals and monkeys and none of them matched up. It was all pretty weird because they all had their new needs as animals and it didn't match with what they were. The love story was kinda weird since the girl didn't want the tin woodmen anymore and the fact that they left and it was all for nothing didn't make sense.
Me – A lot of randomness in this one as well, but there is a love story at its core as we learn of a twin brother that the Tin Woodman had all along who shares the love of a long lost young lady named Nimee Amee. A lot of diversionary stories, adventures, and one cool twist by the end, and everyone arrives back where they started. Not the best, but entertaining. This one, while random at times, was a quality read.

#13 The Magic of Oz (1919) READ March 13, 2017 – April 25, 2017
My Kid – I wish you could transform yourself. Like... What if you wanted to turn yourself into a pea shooter from Plants Vs Zombies? I don't even know how to pronounce the word. I never heard of it, this nonsense word.
Me – This one had a funny gimmick in it with a secret word that when spoken could turn anyone into anything. There is a war on, and a secret force is transforming monkeys into superhuman soldiers (and there is a complication that no one in oz can be hurt but what happens when someone is chopped into a hundred living pieces?). This one was enjoyable, but the gimmick is honestly the only thing holding it all together.

#14 Glinda of Oz (1920) READ April 25, 2017 – May 23, 2017
My Kid – This one was kinda like a world of them figuring out what is going on with the big glass house-world under-water. The opposite of everything and they couldn't figure out how to get it back to normal, so what was going on with the war the whole time? Then they fix it. Everything is all set.
Me – This posthumous volume seemed to be pieced together from notes, as there is a clear difference between the tone of prior volumes and this one. The cadence and structure of the language and story is quite different in parts, and I found it takes itself seriously by comparison. Beautiful art and architecture present this journey, and I have to say, the fact that this was in new hands really shows because there is some wonderful structure that is absent in the other volumes, as well as even reintroductions to the characters when they show up. The end was a little too tidy with another deus ex machina, but the fact that it came from something that was surprising and there all along was different.

*BONUS Oz Works by L. Frank Baum, 'the Royal Historian of Oz'

The Woggle-Bug Book (1905) READ May 23, 2017 – May 24, 2017
My Kid – Actually, I don't have a review for my kid... See below.
Me – This book started cute and had a cute premise. When I began reading it at bedtime, the kid had fallen asleep. I tend to keep reading and save our spot, and then pick it up where he fell asleep the next night. Lucky for me, the terrifyingly racist parlance in this book started after he fell asleep. I read through to the end, with no intention of going back with him tomorrow... It was... shockingly indifferent to complete disregard for everyone. From switching between "Oriental" and "Chinaman" and having a character with a dialect that wasn't just a stereotype but also a stereotype of a racist's impression wasn't nearly as bad as the way Baum used the N-word (and had the character as a monkey's monkey). It was offensive and seemed ridiculously gratuitous for even the time it was published. Not a shining moment for his work at all... But it was pretty cool to learn the Woggle Bug was from Boston, anyway. This one was pretty awful.