Showing posts with label Bob Evans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob Evans. Show all posts

Monday, January 28, 2013

More Oz books!

 Now to go ahead and finish this box of Oz books that I've read...

Pegasus in Oz by Annie Brzozowski — Many people from the Emerald City head to Ev to free a pegasus (a winged horse) from a cyclops! Meanwhile, a boy named Don Mullinquy finds his way to Ev from Wyoming.

This story isn't really one of the best. There are far too many characters going to Ev from Oz, and few of them do anything. Nathan wrote about it over a year ago, and I agree with his assessment: there's a good plot, but it's not fully developed. If the writer is still writing, it may be something for her to try again.

The illustrations by Steve Burt are cartoony and fun, but there's far too few.

Buy Pegasus in Oz here.

The Magic Chest of Oz by Donald Abbott — Donald Abbott wrote a number of Oz stories set before and just after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This is one of them, set some time before The Marvelous Land of Oz. (It is also the only book in this blog that Chris Dulabone didn't publish.)

The Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion are all doing their duties around Oz, when a number of Munchkins accidentally free the shadow of the Wicked Witch of the East. She locked it away when it came to life, taking the name Malvonia. With some help from the Good Witches, can the famous trio defeat Malvonia before she takes on a real body?

The story is actually pretty good, though rather direct. The illustrations on the other hand, I really wish Abbott had tried to find his own style. It's obvious he prefers Denslow over Neill, and there's no problem with that, but I'd like to see Abbott work out his own style. If he's managed to develop a style like Denslow's, then that's amazing, but I'd like to see what he'd develop on his own.

Buy The Magic Chest of Oz here.

A Mystical Magical Super Adventure in Oz by Chris Dulabone and Marin Xiques — This is a follow up to A Silver Elf in Oz, detailing how the people of Ciudad del Nino adjust to living in Oz after being relocated from New Mexico. Approximately the first half of the the book tell how Faith and Gideon Shelcore deal with snobby (formerly) rich girl Delilah Summers.

In the second half, Delilah gets transported while trying to pull a prank during a school field trip to the Springbok Forest of Oz. She winds up going on a quest to find the golden Pylowe of Huwlanne.

I won't spoil the ending, but it was far from the re-defining character moment for Delilah that I thought it would be at the end, wiped out with a next-to-last page twist.

Melody Grandy provides a few illustrations, but there's far too few. There's exactly 100 pages between the first illustration in the text and the second one. Melody's illustrations are beautiful, but there's far too few.

Get A Mystical Magical Super Adventure in Oz here.

Finally, The Magic Topaz of Oz by Carol P. Silva, Marin Xiques and Bob Evans — This story follows up on The Forest Monster of Oz, which left Tweaty the Canary transformed into a cat-sized, orange elephant. After being advised to try to be happy, in case he can't ever regain his former shape, he meets Judy the Rhinoceros, who gives him the Topaz Topsaz, which allows him to do the things he wanted to do.

Tweaty goes around the forest, trying to help whoever he meets by using the topaz to grant their wishes. But is giving the other animals exactly what they want good for them? And will Tweaty ever be restored?

The story makes a really good point and is a lot of fun, though its entire premise is built on an unresolved issue in Forest Monster.

The illustrations by Lauren Marie Finley are actually more like poster art, depicting the animal characters, but they're very nicely done, very realistic.

Get The Magic Topaz of Oz here.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Bob and Chris

I have been taking it easy on blogging lately. Sometimes, you just need a break and when you have it, it takes awhile to come back.

It's been bugging me, though, because I have a number of Oz books that I've read...

Here are two by Chris Dulabone and Bob Evans. Up first is The Forest Monster of Oz. The giant spider the Cowardly Lion defeated in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is back and is stealing the life essence from the animals in the Lunechien Forest of Oz. It's up to a small band of brave animals to seek help from Ozma of Oz—the new ruler of the Emerald City—herself.

The story is set shortly after The Marvelous Land of Oz and follows the usual quest pattern, though the conclusion is a bit of a surprise and leaves everyone with a happy ending.

The other one is Abducted to Oz. Young Graham is suddenly grabbed by the Wicked Witch of the West and taken to Oz. This isn't the real Wicked Witch of the West, instead it's a parade float version that was brought to life, and thanks to a thought of Graham's at the moment she was brought to life, she looks a lot like Margaret Hamilton's version from the MGM movie. However, she believes she's the real thing, and that's bad enough!

Graham must escape the witch and get back home, but can he do it without letting everyone in Oz down now that they have a new Wicked Witch to deal with?

These two books are a lot of fun, but there's an issue with both: they each have a chapter that could easily be removed where the characters meet some form of a real historical figure who tells them their story. I can appreciate trying to be educational, but I don't feel it was integrated so well here. This is like reading The Lord of the Rings and suddenly finding a chapter where Frodo and Sam meet George Washington.

The chapter in Abducted works better than the one in Forest Monster. In Abducted, Graham finds an illusion airport where he boards a train and he meets a number of historical figures, such as William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. Since we're still wandering around Oz, this doesn't interrupt the story much. However, in Forest Monster, this happens midway through the resolution of the story. Literally, it is the next to last chapter. We're almost at the climax, but before we get to it, we meet the shadow of a baseball player from the future who tells us about his owner's career. It would have been much better if these meeting had been integrated into the plot.

However, like I said, these chapters can more or less be ignored. The rest of the books still make for great Oz stories.

Get The Forest Monster of Oz
Get Abducted to Oz