Ruggedo the (ex-) Nome King is at it again: He wants to incite the wild animals of Oz to rise up and overthrow Ozma and the other humans. This time he has a powerful if not terribly bright ally: Kiki Aru, the good-for-nothing son of a retired sorceror who possesses his father's most powerful weapon--the magic word "Pyrzqxgl," which when correctly pronounced enables the speaker to turn anything into anything else. During an encounter in the Gugu Forest, Kiki turns the Wizard of Oz into a fox, Dorothy into a sheep, the Cowardly Lion into a Munchkin boy, and the Hungry Tiger into a rabbit. Meanwhile, Cap'n Bill and Trot, who have followed the Glass Cat to the far northeast of the Munchkin Country in search of the Magic Flower that grows different blooms continuously (they intend to give it to Ozma for her upcoming birthday), find themselves stuck to the little island on which the flower sits! This 13th book in Baum's Oz series--inventive but not that compelling--was published several months after his death in 1919, but there was one more to come.
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The review of this Book prepared by David Loftus
