Sweet Wishes and Pegasus

Sweet Wishes from Oz, by Marin Elizabeth Xiques - As might be expected from the title, the book is a bit saccharine, but still a fun read. It involves Wintergreen, a candy-making elf who works at the North Pole, opening a candy store in the Emerald City in order to gain inspiration. Meanwhile, a boy named Andy tries to perform an elf's work at Santa Claus's workshop. A major plot point involves Andy's parents, who, after an unfortunate accident involving bags of chocolate coins, no longer enjoy the holidays and instead just go through the motions in order to impress the neighbors. The reference to people who have traded in the holiday spirit for commercialism and making a show is obvious, but I think the story gets a little un-Ozzy in order to make its point. I can't really buy that Oz has camcorders, especially when it apparently still doesn't have television. Oh, well.

Pegasus in Oz, by Annie Brzozowski - The author was quite young when she wrote this, and as it doesn't appear that Chris Dulabone generally does all that much in the way of editing, it shows. The thing is, the plot is actually pretty good, and there are a lot of ideas that have potential. It's just that they're never fully developed, and the dialogue is rather stilted. Mind you, I commend anyone who can get a book they wrote as a kid published, even if it's by a small non-profit organization. I feel, however, that it could benefit from a good rewrite. The story involves several Ozites journeying to Ev to save the last remaining pegasus from a ravenous cyclops, and there are some interesting twists at the end.