In the continuation of the Oz series, Dorothy Gale finally brings Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to the Emerald City. The family was in trouble in Kansas, so Dorothy asks Ozma to let her live in Oz. Just as her family is having hard times in Kansas, so is the Emerald City. The evil and angry Nome King is plotting to conquer Oz, enslave its people, and take over the Emerald City.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
The review of this Book prepared by Jessica Marler
Roquat the Red, the Nome King -- whom we first met in _Ozma of Oz_ -- is mad that Dorothy and Ozma took his magic belt. He decides to raise an army to conquer and enslave all of Oz, and retrieve the belt, and enlists as his allies the Whimsies (who have tiny, doorknob sized heads that they cover with fake, pasteboard ones), the Growleywogs (who are the strongest people of the world, and are determined to enslave the Nomes as well as the people of Oz), and worst of all, the Phanfasms (who by sorcery can change into almost anything but usually appear as hairy men with beast heads). Meanwhile, Dorothy has prevailed upon Ozma to bring Uncle Henry and Aunt Em to the Emerald City for permanent residence since the Kansas farm is about to be foreclosed by a bank. While the invading army tunnels under the deadly desert to Oz, Dorothy and old friends show the land off to her elderly relations, which enables the reader to meet the Cuttenclips (paper cutout dolls and their forever-childish maker), the Fuddles of Fuddlecumjig (people who shatter into pieces when other folks come near and have to be put back together), Utensia (inhabited by walking, talking flatware), and other odd communities. Although this plot is a bit better than several of its predecessors, Baum resorts to a rather cheap solution to the truly horrific threat he has conjured up. This, the sixth Oz book, dated 1910, proclaimed itself the last . . . but it turned out not to be.
The review of this Book prepared by David Loftus
