This book is Ruth Plumly Thompson's first foray into Oz writing (and it is entirely hers, despite the publishers' initial story that she had written it based on notes left by L. Frank Baum), and it is hardly her best work, but it isn't her worst, either. She does a good job working with Baum's characters, and the premise of the book is an attempt to solve one of the greatest mysteries left behind by Baum: why the Scarecrow is alive. I know some people have been dissatisfied with the explanation, but I have no problem with it. A weak point to this book is that it isn't especially tightly plotted, with some moments where the action stops for no reason.

Thompson seemed to want to make Oz more multicultural than Baum left it, and, to this end, she used this book to introduce an Arthurian knight and an Oriental kingdom. While this is admirable in a way, Thompson uses a lot of stereotypes in writing about foreign cultures. The Scarecrow considers the Oriental Silver Islanders to be "stupid," and is disturbed to find out that they eat cats. The illustrations are even worse in this respect. I would say these stereotypes are the only potentially offensive part of the book, though (unless you're of a similar mind to the Wogglebug fan who posted an earlier review, in reply to whom I can only say that the Wogglebug might be slightly meaner here than in Baum's books, but overall, he's just as Baum introduced him: a stuffy, stuck-up academic, who is rarely intentionally mean or unfriendly, but often rubs people the wrong way). I would say any Oz fan should read this at some point, but, if it's your first Thompson book, keep in mind that she gets better.

This book in its initial release was instant an Oz classic, but now Books of Wonder rereleases Thompsons first installment in Baum's Oz Series. In "The Royal Book of Oz " Thompson recaptures all of Baum's Oz magic and addes some of her own. In this 15th Official Oz Book Thompson revives the series by bringing back such classic characters as the Scarecrow(who finally comes to understand why he is alive, who is family is, and faces a lot of serious dangers along the way)and brings us all new Oz characters to enjoy such as Sir Hokus of Pokes(a vallent knight), and the Comfortable Camel. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an Oz Book with a Thompson twist.

On a quest for his family tree, the Scarecrow travels to the Munchkin farm where Dorothy originally met him. He falls down a magic beanstalk (the pole Dorothy rescued him from) and finds himself in a strange land, the Silver Islands, where he is proclaimed to be the re-created Emperor Chang Wang Woe. Meanwhile, when Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion realize that the Scarecrow is missing from the Emerald City, they go off in search of him. In this story, you'll meet many delightful new characters, such as the Doubtful Dromedary, the Comfortable Camel, and (my favorite) Sir Hokus of Pokes. Like Ruth Plumly Thompson's other Oz books, this one is as lively and at least as funny as L. Frank Baum's series. Thompson wrote 19 Oz books, so if you like this one, there are lots more to enjoy.

Ruggedo is back, with yet another attempt to conquer the Land of Oz. As usual, Thompson does a good job with this character, making him a threatening yet childish and humorous villain. In this book, he temporarily teams up with Peter Brown from Philadelphia, who is not one of my favorite American visitors to Oz, but does have a well-developed personality. When Peter turns against Ruggedo, he uses his own talents to conquer the former Nome King. (Incidentally, in case you're wondering, Thompson used the traditional spelling of "gnome," hence the book title, but I prefer to use Baum's spelling.) The Patchwork Girl also makes an appearance, and Peter helps her to escape from Patch, another one of the tiny kingdoms scattered throughout Oz (and the second to emphasize sewing). After the escape from Patch, the timing suffers somewhat, with Peter and Scraps, along with the less interesting Grumpy the bear and Ozwold the oztrich, visiting the irrelevant villages that appear in most Oz books. While these villages are fairly clever Thompsonian creations, I found myself wanting to get back to Ruggedo's attempts to conquer the country. I wouldn't call this one of the better Oz books, but it is worth reading just for Ruggedo, and there's a lot of other good stuff in the book as well.

Scraps the Patchwork Girl finds herself crowned Queen of the Quilties, but her new position is not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. So she runs away, heading back to her home in the Emerald City. At the same time, Peter, a boy from the United States, is conned into helping the evil Gnome King regain control of the underworld. But when Peter figures out what the Gnome King really has up his sleeve, he changes sides and helps save the Emerald City from a Gnome invasion. Ruth Plumly Thompson again cooks up a breezy story full of off-the-wall jokes and lively characters. It's a treat.

Is it possible that the fairyland of Oz is really a fictional metaphor for the Christian Heaven, or a fantasy parallel of broader Western conceptions of the afterlife? Ruth Plumly Thompson's Handy Mandy In Oz (1937) begins with young lass goat herd Mandy being propelled into the atmosphere by the sudden eruption of a spring under the mountain on which she lives. Sudden, potentially fatal acts of nature or abrupt, violent accidents that drive girls and boys into the stratosphere and beyond like corks are common in the Oz books, beginning with the first book, The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, in which Dorothy is famously carried to Oz by a cyclone. In the same title, the Wizard has reached Oz by similar means; his hot air balloon has been blown off the face of the Earth by high winds. In 1908's Dorothy and The Wizard In Oz, Dorothy falls through a fissure in the ground during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and in The Scarecrow Of Oz (1915), little Trot and her adult male companion Cap'n Bill also reach the 'other world,' if not Oz directly, by being sucked into a whirlpool. In John R. Neill's Lucky Bucky In Oz (1942), young lad Bucky is propelled into the lands surrounding Oz by an explosion on a ship in New York Harbor. Does Oz act as a kind of conduit that attracts the living like a magnet under such circumstances, or have Dorothy, Trot, and Bucky passed away into paradise?

Interestingly, Baum, who adapted European fairy mythology and Theosophical beliefs for the Oz books, also had a backdoor method for entering Oz: in 1919's The Road To Oz, Dorothy, again back in Kansas, finds herself more or less 'pixie led' - inexplicably lost in a familiar place - while on the road to American city Butterfield. Since the fairies were partially identified with the dead in Ireland and Scotland, Dorothy's "straying off the path" is open to a number of interpretations.

To small Christian children then as now, Oz must certainly seem like Heaven, or least a happy, comforting purgatory where no one goes hungry, wants for anything, or ages; every one of its inhabitants lives forever in almost complete peace and serenity. In fact, Oz, with its minor greedy, power-lusting villains and occasional upsets, is perhaps more akin to Heaven before Lucifer's rebellion and expulsion. For Dorothy, who is eventually and permanently joined in Oz by beloved animal companion Toto and parental guardians Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, Oz is paradise, a place with just enough novelty and tension to make infinity enjoyable forever.

If Oz enjoys a god figure, then it is child fairy Ozma; but Ozma, relatively mature sorceress Glinda the Good, and especially over-conceived sky voluptuary Polychrome are more akin to the traditional image of Christian angels. Outside its own borders, Oz has its hell and its devils too. Every Oz reader knows about the underground cavern kingdom of the Gnomes, which lies across the burning, fiery-hot desert in Ev (Evil?), and of Ev's demonic, shape-shifting Phanfasms, most malevolent of all Oz and Ev tribes.

Handy Mandy in Oz is one of the lesser Thompson titles, enjoyable enough in itself but not quite developed enough in its narrative to join the classics in the Oz chronicle. Thompson introduces Mandy, who has seven arms, but, in clever conjunction with illustrator John R. Neill, doesn't make this apparent until the book's third chapter. Suddenly discovering herself in a Gillikin kingdom lorded over by a domineering false king, Mandy meets "royal ox" Nox, and the two escape in search of deposed boy king Kerry, who has been missing for two Oz years. Handy Mandy, who has a decided Protestant work ethic, is a solidly built, self-reliant, no-nonsense lass who, all things considered, makes an excellent role model. Thompson wisely fails to stress whether or not Mandy is beautiful, and allows Mandy a certain toughness of mind: Mandy has to be the only heroic Oz character before Jenny Jump who is suspicious of Ozma's buttery sweetness and perceives her Magic Picture to have negative, Big Brother-like potential. In one early chapter, Mandy, resolutely prepared to face any opposition, takes up not only a sword but a rifle, surely an Ozian first. Curmudgeon Nox the Ox, like Kabumpo the Elegant Elephant before him, is a similarly well-conceived character; Nox realistically loses his temper on occasion and doesn't suffer fools gladly.

The villain of the book is fey sorcerer Wutz the Silver King, who Neill hilariously portrays as a slightly decadent, late-period John Barrymore. Wutz frees Ruggedo the Gnome King from his latest in a series of many enchantments and the two unscrupulous beings, ostensibly in partnership, plot against Ozma and one another. The story of Handy Mandy In Oz is, in pattern, so much like other previous Oz titles that the reader will easily guess not only who has captured the missing Kerry but what the outcome of the nefarious plot will be. The resurrection of Ruggedo alone will cause readers to pause to suppress a yawn.

As a seven-armed wonder - three on one side, four awkwardly on the other - Handy Mandy may remind readers of an archetypal Indian goddess reinterpreted as a clog-wearing Dutch milkmaid. John R. Neill's illustrations are terrific throughout, including one depicting the futuristic, Art Deco interior of the Silver King's throne room, and another of frenzied Scraps the Patchwork Girl attacking the unprepared Mandy. Unlike some of the other Thompson titles, there are few elements of the book which reflect the influence of the Alice books. However, one of Neill's pictures of Mandy and Nox treading water, heads barely above the surface, appears to be a homage to Tenniel's illustrations for Alice chapter The Pool Of Tears, especially since, as in Carroll, the 'pool' is generated from the body of one of the swimmers.

Better than the book Wizard of Oz by far. Imaginative. A very special book for girls. A very resourceful heroine without being too sweet, unusual for the time. Young boys will like it also, plenty of action.

This book gives a major role to Jack Pumpkinhead, a character who never really had one in the Baum books. In this story, Jack must test the capacity of his pumpkin seed brains, and he really does come up with some clever ideas. With the help of the Red Jinn (who becomes a more important character in later books), he eventually manages to save all of Oz from a restless and ambitious baron. As is usual for Oz books, this one contains a lot of clever new creations, including an Iffin, a baron with a never-ending beard, and a runaway Christmas tree intent on finding new ornaments. There are also many new magical items, and some well-written sequences, including the description of the main characters' entrance into the fortress city of Baffleburg. While not one of the best or most important Oz books, it is definitely a fun read.

The Emerald City is under attack by the forces of the evil Mogodore the Mighty and it's up to Jack Pumpkinhead and an American boy named Peter to save Ozma and her friends from enslavement. Once again, Ruth Plumly Thompson spins an enchanting yarn full of colorful characters and wild situations. A delightful addition to the Oz series.

In the first half of the 20th century, publisher Reilly & Lee provided the lucky American children with a new Oz title every year for decades. Looking back on the series today, it seems clear that the quality of the Oz books understandably suffered as a result of this policy. Royal Historians Baum, Thompson, and Neill at some point all submitted material that seemed forced, as if it were traced from an overused blueprint rather than created from inspiration with enthusiasm.

Thompson's tenure was winding down by the time she wrote Captain Salt In Oz (1936), a novel that suffers, as all the worst of the Oz books do, from being in plot and theme about nothing in particular. As in Thompson's The Silver Princess In Oz (1938), much of the writing is leaden and almost impossible to follow comfortably. Captain Salt In Oz reads like a manuscript in which the primary story has been extracted; worse, its narrative could have been told in one - fourth of its 306 pages.

Blending together elements from Ballantyne's 'The Coral Island,' Kipling's 'Captains Courageous,' and Burrough's Tarzan mythos, Captain Salt In Oz, while occasionally lively in tone, comes to little except some very mild adventures at sea. Ex - pirate and present - day 'Royal Oz Explorer' Captain Salt and ship's cook Ato, out colonizing for Ozma on the high seas, rescue petulant young king Tandy from a tropical island prison. Neurotically obsessed with maintaining his regal status while on board the galleon (the Crescent Moon, in homage to Henry Hudson's Half Moon), in time Tandy learns to discard his notions of elitism and live life as the carefree young boy he really is. The trouble is that there is no tension, drama, or adversity in Tandy's catharsis: the waters surrounding him are not stormy and perilous, but brackish and tepid. No villains threaten; no obstacles frustrate. Considering that the story takes place in Oz, where almost anything can happen, almost nothing does.

Captain Salt In Oz is further out at sea that it realizes, and not waving but drowning. No members of the Oz royal family appear, and while pacifist Captain Salt is an energetic, colorful character, he is given little to do but reflect fondly on his previous life as a cutlass - wielding buccaneer. Thompson had an extreme weakness for generic boy kings, and Tandy is in no way distinguishable from any of those that came before him. Those who would like to experience what Thompson made of Oz should consider her excellent Kabumpo In Oz (1922) instead.

Books of Wonder has made the right choice--reissuing these books with their original artwork intact. There's no "updating" of Oz--it's from a particular time and place in the American heart, and making excuses for it or trying to update or commercialize it... misses the point.

In this book Ruth Plumly Thompson draws, and quite delightfully, on the tradition of "pirates as explorer" brought down from real-life swashbucklers like the pirate-discoverer 17th century William Dampier. A sequel to "Pirates in Oz" (which is not quite so playful and fun), it stands alone for new readers as a lovely jaunt through uncharted seas to new nations of magic--and as such has a terrific undertone celebrating the wonders of natural discover.

It's the pair of older characters here--King Ato of Pingaree and Captain Salt himself--that give the book the meat of enjoyment for older readers. Salt is a handsome, rakish, idealistically minded pacifist with a weakness for collecting odd flora and fauna. Ato is the pragmatic, stomach-oriented king-turned-seacook who accompanies Salt on his travels while maintaining a good supply of thick books tucked under his ample arms--in case Capt Sammy needs to have them dropped on his head to rouse his anger, in the event of enemy attack. These two play off amusingly against each other, each supporting the other's work.

To a modest, and much appreciated degree, Thompson confronts, rather than avoids, the problematic issue of imperially "claiming" lands whose occupants may or may not wish to be claimed--not an overriding theme of the book, but a nice assurance that as an author she's considered the less pleasant side of all this worldly jaunting, in Empire's name! She's writing for children, and she knows it--still, it's nice to see the issues debated--and definitely helps in keeping this book from feeling dated and unreadable.

As a child, I would bring home stacks of the original '20s and '30s editions of the Oz books and devour them, getting the same satisfaction kids must get today of working their way alone through a Harry Potter book. Of course, the Oz books are simpler and have more illustrations, but they offer a similar kind of fun. Magic, spunky young characters on their way to learning something about themselves--and a supporting cast of idiosyncratic older characters who bring suggestive depth and history to the tales.

Most *certainly* worth searching out to share with younger children.

This book is super. It preserves the curious innocence of the original series of 14 Oz books, but also presents a swashbuckling adventure in lively language. Thompson's view of Oz retains Baum's view of Oz, but is presented in such a different way that Oz becomes a new fun experience. I highly recommend this book

After almost twenty years of continual Oz authorship, Ruth Plumly Thompson was clearly exhausted of ideas and energy by the time she completed 1938's The Silver Princess In Oz. Like John R. Neill's Lucky Bucky In Oz, this entry into the Oz chronicle reads more like a rough draft than a finished manuscript; portions of several chapters make no sense at all and are impossible to follow as published.

Coming well before the American science fiction boom of the fifties, with the Silver Princess In Oz, Thompson added ostensible extraterrestrials to the Oz landscape. In fairness, the extraterrestrials Thompson created for the book, Planetty and Thun the Thunder Colt, are creatures of fairytale convention and a far cry from the bug - eyed saucer men and glittering robots of the later age. The possibility of mixing the Oz fairyland with inhabitants of other planets is an interesting one, and one illustrator John R. Neill accomplished beautifully in his first authored Oz title, 1940's The Wonder City of Oz (though Neill's extraterrestrials were only warmongering mocha soldiers from a distant chocolate star).

In previous books Thompson had created vital, admirable, and multi-dimensional Oz heroines, such as Handy Mandy and Peg Amy, who made excellent role models for young readers. Thompson fails here not because Planetty, the Girl from Anuther Planet and her fire - breathing steed are creatures of fairytale romance, but simply because Planetty fails as a character and role model of any kind. Insipid, empty - headed, and oozing honeyed sweetness, Planetty, who is supposed to be a warrior, wins out over self - fascinated sky fairy Polychrome and the brain - poor Button-Bright as Oz's most tiresomely insensible character. Like Polychrome, Planetty is blissfully narcissistic; she spends the balance of the novel prancing, primping, and cheerfully speaking baby talk with a lisp. Illustrator Neill clearly understood the limitations of Thompson's text, for the book includes no less than 11 unelaborate illustrations of the silver - skinned Planetty striking empty poses for an audience in absentee. Planetty is first cousin to the vacuous lingerie model who glides through the fashion salon chanting 'Our new one piece lace foundation garment; zips up the back, and no bones,' in the 1939 film The Women: both exist solely on a catwalk in a parallel universe all of their own.

The story of the Silver Princess Of Oz is an empty retread of one of several already overused Oz blueprints. To escape dull court life and an unwanted marriage, young Gillikin King Randy of Regalia and Kabumpo the Elegant Elephant journey to Ev to visit mutual friend the Red Jinn. On the way, the two meet the space girl and her horse, who have unintentionally fallen to Oz down the back of a lightening bolt. Reaching the Jinn's castle, the foursome discover subversives have ousted the Jinn and taken over the realm. Briefly captured, Randy, Kabumpo, Planetty, and Thun escape to search of the missing magician.

Thun, who speaks by exhaling words of smoke, is no more interesting than Planetty, and King Randy is identical to all other young Thompson boy heroes. Creating new characters was Thompson's forte, but in the Silver Princess In Oz she failed completely, and none of classic members of the Oz royal family appear to add liveliness or spunk to the plodding, repetitive narrative.

The Silver Princess In Oz is also burdened with racial stereotypes, for the Red Jinn's subjects are 'blacks,' a color not usually associated with an Oz or Ev people or territory. As Neill's illustrations and Thompson's text make clear, the word 'black' is not an arbitrary distinction: the Jinn's turban-wearing people are Africans or African Americans, 'as black as the ace of spades,' who, when fleeing in fear, cry 'Yah, yah, mah ' Master!'

Less than a plum of an Oz book, the Silver Princess In Oz is one of the few titles which deserves the relative obscurity to which many of the later Oz books have fallen.

In Thompson's next-to-last book in the Famous Forty (she later wrote two more Oz books for the International Wizard of Oz Club), she presents us with one last romance between a young prince and princess, one last visit to the realm of the Red Jinn (who would reappear in the IWOC-published "Yankee in Oz"), and one last adventure for Kabumpo the Elegant Elephant. In many ways this is more of a summing-up of Thompson's style and the unique elements she brought to the Oz series than any of her three later Oz books. In fact, like "Captain Salt in Oz", this book features only Thompson's own characters and none of Baum's, although unlike "Captain Salt" parts of the story do take place in the Land of Oz. "Silver Princess" contains many beautiful and highly memorable moments and a unique and fascinating personality in its title character: Planetty, the Princess of Anuther (sic) Planet. Despite a major plot hole at the very end of the story--how do the characters cross the Deadly Desert on their return to Oz?--this book is highly enjoyable.