The Magic Umbrella of Oz

Hardcover edition

 This year at Winkies, I worked with Paul Dana at his table in the dealer's room. We were also sharing it with Karyl Carlson, who had copies of Queen Ann in Oz for sale. He was selling paperback copies of The Law of Oz and Other Stories and its sequel The Magic Umbrella of Oz. Of course I bought copies of both of the new books.

As I said, this is a sequel to The Law of Oz and follows up from it. If you haven't read that one, it's a little difficult to discuss this one without revealing some of the revelations from that book, so if you don't want any spoilers, stop reading now and come back for the next blog.

... So, you're one of the people who's read The Law of Oz?

... Or you don't care about spoilers?

Well, I'll be starting the review in a sec.

Okay?

I warned you.

Paperback edition

Okay. Review starts now. Button-Bright and Ojo have been working with their powers they discovered and acquired in the previous book, working on transformations and how to help people with them.

However, part of the climax of the previous tale has unleashed a wicked spirit called the Piper in Oz. Unable to find any children it can lure (all of the children in Oz are actually decades old), it seeks to leave Oz, finding an ally in a green monkey named Moyna Yoop... They just need two things: the Magic Umbrella to find the Ring of Time so they can get an important item from the past of Oz: the Silver Shoes!

There's a daring adventure, some twists, some new revelations about the past of Oz and Button-Bright, and the secret of the Magic Umbrella is finally revealed.

Paul weaves a great tale, and it's illustrated beautifully by Jaun Raza. Many of the pictures are available in color in the hardcover edition (hence its higher price), but they are reproduced in halftones and greyscale in the paperback edition, so you get lovely art either way. Definitely recommended.

But make sure you read The Law of Oz first.