The Runaway in Oz

Neill wrote a new Oz book for 1943 and submitted it to Reilly & Lee. However, he died at age 65 before the work could be completed. Reilly & Lee scrambled for what to do next, because they were now out of an author and illustrator for the Oz books. Frank O'Donnell contacted Ruth Plumly Thompson about returning, as she had indicated she would be open to it, but she had a big question: "Since poor Johnny Neill is dead, who will do the illustrations? I think this is a pretty important matter and if someone without imagination or a certain style takes over, they'll be as good as killed from the start (or rather the thirty-seventh start—or something.)."

Neill had been her friend and his work had been a staple of the Oz series for thirty-seven years. If Oz would continue without him, it was important to Thompson that a suitable successor be found. However, O'Donnell did not have an answer.

Many Oz fans maintain that the series went on its first hiatus since 1910 in 1943, but Reilly & Lee were actively looking for a replacement author and illustrator. Yes, the cost of publishing a new book was an expense that, in this time of paper shortage, would be nice to write off, but the publishers did want the series to continue. What they eventually settled on will be the topic of the next blog.

But to the point of this entry, what became of Neill's final Oz book and how was it? The answer is that the manuscript remained with his family for years, until the 1990s. Well, there seems to have been another version made, but it doesn't look to be faithful to Neill's original intentions. Also, it is not easily available. Books of Wonder founder Peter Glassman wanted to give Neill's final manuscript the treatment it deserved, bringing established Oz illustrator Eric Shanower on board. While I'm sure many of my blog readers know of Shanower (hey, he might even be reading this), at the time, he had finished publishing his fifth and final Oz graphic novel with Dark Horse, and Books of Wonder had published his The Giant Garden of Oz.

In Shanower's own words: "The plot of the published book is essentially what Neill wrote, though I did a few nips and tucks (pun intended) in places to make it more unified. I retained as much of Neill's actual language as I could, although his prose style is nothing to write home about. I was far more concerned with retaining Neill's substance It was not my intention to change any of Neill's ideas or characters, but to make the book more readable."

As you can see in the above linked page, Shanower compares himself with the same editor who had worked on Wonder City, but I feel the difference is that this time, the editor had good intentions not only about staying true to the spirit of Neill, but also to the spirit of Oz overall. Shanower also illustrated the book, and while fans have compared his artwork quite favorably with Neill's, they are very different from each other. But still, Shanower was one of the best Oz illustrators at the time, and he still is!

The Books of Wonder version of Runaway was published in 1995, and as I have no other version of the book, and it was authorized by Neill's family, it is the version I refer to.

Everyone in the Emerald City is getting ready for a grand banquet, but Scraps just wants to play. She scuffs up the just cleaned palace, puts a couple scratches on the Tin Woodman, gets torn by the Dragonette, and when she asks Jenny Jump for help in repairing, she's turned down because the magic turn-style doesn't seem to fix tears, and it would take hours to repair Scraps by hand, and Jenny only has minutes. Basically, Scraps is doing the wrong things at the wrong time. However, she feels wronged and runs away on her spoolicle. (A bicycle with giant spools instead of wheels.)

Scraps' first stop is Jinjur's farm, where Jinjur makes it clear she will have no idle hands on her farm. A fix-it shop repairs her body, and the owner tells her about Fanny, the Weather Witch, who might help Scraps leave Oz altogether.

Along the way to Fanny's, Scraps visits the Woggle-Bug's Athletic College, where she meets a boy named Alexample, who prefers old-fashioned studying to education pills. The Woggle-Bug is planning on a vacation in an air castle he dreamed up (literally), but Scraps accidentally sends it—and Alexample—afloat. So she hurries on.

Scraps reaches Fanny's mountain and begins riding the spoolicle on the narrow spiraling mountain path. Halfway up, she finds High Faluting City, a place where all the inhabitants have had themselves flattened. The shape helps with wind resistance, for Fanny often makes winds blow from her mountain. Everyone simply lies flat on the ground, so the wind does not blow them away. After a failed attempt to go up the mountain, Scraps has herself flattened, being informed that she will resume her former shape if she gets wet.

Scraps heads up the mountain, being able to resist the wind by pressing herself against the mountainside, but she soon makes a new friend in Popla the power plant, a bush with a girl's face who is incredibly strong. Soon, Scraps regains her normal shape when it rains, and soon reaches Fanny's hut. Fanny is busy and seems to be a little bothered at being disturbed, but agrees to send Scraps over the desert. But things go a little wrong. Popla, carrying Scraps and the spoolicle, hesitates and breaks Fanny's windmill as they go sailing away!

Meanwhile the Woggle-Bug is furious at the loss of his castle and goes to complain about Scraps to the Wizard and/or Ozma. He runs into Jenny Jump and Jack Pumpkinhead, who are looking for Scraps themselves. Jenny regrets being unkind to Scraps (revealing the Wizard restored her temper to her) and wants to find where she ran off to. The Woggle-Bug joins them. The next morning (during the night, Scraps would have been in High Faluting City), they find a man who seems to be made of shards of glass. When he captures Jenny to "repair" himself, Jack shatters him, freeing Jenny. Given Neill's previous books, I can only dread how this must have originally read. However, this scene, probably thanks to Shanower's editing, is a little exciting, even if it feels too short.

Also, in classic Baum style, the plot usually alternates chapter by chapter, while in Thompson and the earlier Neill books, there would be a few chapters of one plot line, then some (or sometimes one) of another. Given Neill's earlier books, I might wonder if this is also Shanower's work. If so, it makes the chapters more satisfying as they cover more story.

Back to Scraps and Popla. They wind up on a cloud being pushed along by Cloud Pushers who want to take them back to Fanny who wants to have a word with them. The two manage to escape on a shooting star, which is controlled by a robotic man named Battery Batt, who Scraps puts out of order by punching him, and the two are joined by a chubby little man named Twinkler. Fanny sends bad weather their way, but they manage to escape to the Woggle-Bug's air castle, where they find Alexample who has been enjoying this time away from the college, thanks to an extensive library in the castle. The four decide they'll stay in the air castle forever. Shortly, they must defend the castle from air-pirates, who are quickly defeated when Alexample fires education pills at them. They turn and run quite quickly, so apparently those pills gave them some sense.

Four days after the Pirates attacked, the castle begins to turn into a doughy substance and disintegrate. Apparently, it was only good for a week, and that's up. Scraps and her friends gather together around the spoolicle on the last remaining bit of the castle, a brass door, and begin falling back to earth.

Meanwhile, the Woggle-Bug and Jenny's search for Scraps has proved fruitless (of course). Jack's head gets lost during a storm, and the two are obliged to lead the body around. A self proclaimed poet they run into offers no help, and eventually, the three enter an orchard, where there is no escape. A live bandbox warns them that conse-quinces have risen in rebellion, which is why the orchard has been made so no one can escape. However, they are soon attacked and found by the quinces, including their leaders, the Quince and Quincess. However, the Woggle-Bug happens to look up and see his air castle disintegrating.

Jenny has not been able to find her fairy gifts in her suitcase which provides her with different clothing. (Shanower the illustrator makes use of this and Jenny doesn't look the same in any two illustrations.) She intends to find them to defeat the quinces, but the suitcase only gives her endless black boots, which soon pile up all around. These break the fall of Scraps, the spoolicle, Alexample, Popla, and the Twinkler. The spoolicle crushes the Quince and Quincess, and the other quinces attack in retaliation. They fire smoke balls at Scraps, which make every inch of her black, but it also kills them (similar to how a bee cannot live without its stinger). Soon, each quince is lifeless, and the enchantment on the orchard is broken.

Scraps hates her new condition and Jenny, finally finding her fairy gifts, has to drag her out of the orchard. (She also finds a new pumpkin for a new head for Jack.) The nearby farmers are grateful and have a celebration, and the Twinkler decides to stay, but Scraps will not go to the Emerald City in her present condition. They continue to convince her to go, and finally, she agrees, but she wears a sheet with eyeholes to cover her new condition. (She says it is the prison garb, as it is in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, but as Lucky Bucky said there were no prisons in the Emerald City, this may be a Shanower addition.)

Scraps attempts to bypass the Emerald City, and winds up dropping Jack off back at his home before returning to the Emerald City. There, after scaring a few residents, she appears before Ozma, who says nothing of Scraps' offenses to Jellia, the Woggle-Bug, or the Tin Woodman, but promptly uses the Magic Belt to restore Scraps' body to its former condition, before the quinces attacked her. She says she now wants to see more of the world, and more or less declares devotion to Popla, who seems to share the feeling. (Hmmm?) This leaves it open that the two may go on to have many more adventures.

Except they won't have any more adventures for a long time, as it was the last book Neill wrote.

The Runaway in Oz reads much more clearly and linearly than any of Neill's other books, but for this, I am highly suspecting the editing work of Shanower, and it is this contrast that lets me say my final word on Neill's Oz books.

Neill had some great characters, and some nice plot ideas, but he was no master storyteller. Wonder City is easily the best of the books he'd written for the Famous Forty, but likely the editor who went against his intentions helped with that. Somehow, Lucky Bucky is a close second, with Scalawagons being the worst. But Runaway beats them all.

Still, Runaway has a few issues. Is Scraps REALLY that immature? How is Fanny in control of all the weather in the world and yet we've never heard of her in any of the previous Oz books? And while Scraps & Co. stay in the air castle for about five days, for some reason, the Woggle-Bug and Jenny's journey to find Scraps doesn't feel like it took that long.

Shanower informed me that Scalawagons and Lucky Bucky only had minor editing, and in the page I linked to at the beginning, he says that "The original manuscript of Wonder City is no great shakes, and I can see why Reilly & Lee thought it needed work, but their editors seem not to have cared one whit for Neill's intentions (or for Oz as Baum and Thompson had established it) and the published book is no better than the manuscript and arguably a good deal worse."

What Neill's earlier books needed was an editor who cared about respecting the author's intentions, as well as respecting the creations of Baum and Thompson. Unfortunately, they did not receive such treatment, and if someone were to do new versions of them with new editing, now that the original books have been around for almost seventy years, while it would please some fans, would cause many questions for continuity buffs.

It certainly is a shame the best book with an author attribute to Neill was published over fifty years after his death and may have been the best only because there was a good editor behind it.

Still, Neill had made his mark. His books were published by the same publishers who had published Baum's books and Thompson's books. Regardless of quality, they are part of the Oz series that fans have regarded as such. While Neill contributed little, he did have his memorable contributions to the Oz universe. Few authors seem to want to even touch on his Scalawagons, but his character of Jenny Jump has provided an interesting character to work with, except that as Neill's books are not public domain (his family, unlike Baum's and Thompson's, kept his copyrights active), using Jenny in new Oz stories is limited to non-profit fan writing (such as online fan works), or in the International Wizard of Oz Club's Oziana.

Now, back to 1943. Neill was gone, and the Oz series needed both a new author and illustrator, and would have to wait until a pair could be found

Lucky Bucky in Oz

Neill kept keeping on with his Oz stories, and 1942 brought Lucky Bucky in Oz. Now, would it have a plot to follow like Wonder City, or would it be a plotless disaster like Scalawagons?

Bucky Jones is a young boy working on his uncle's tug boat when suddenly the boiler explodes.

Usually when boilers explode, people die, but this a post-Baum Oz book. Instead, he's hurled through the air and lands in a volcanic island used by bakers, who think he is a thieving pirate. He is rescued by Davy Jones, a wooden whale, and the two decide to go to the Emerald City together, taking a river through what appears to be the Land of Ev, meeting doll-like "dollfins" along the way.

In the Emerald City, crazy things start happening. ... Actually, that's not far from the truth. When the Solider with the Green Whiskers finds children defacing the Emerald City, he wears himself out trying to stop them, and almost resigns. But Ozma decides to put the children's talent to good use by creating a mural to tell the history of Oz. (And now you KNOW an illustrator is writing this.) More than just children get involved. Jack Pumpkinhead paints a picture of Mombi so lifelike that it comes to life, almost a reincarnation of her, it seems. She steals the Wizard's black bag, but Jenny Jump uses her fairy foot power to retrieve it. Mombi escapes over the Deadly Desert, #9 keeping an eye on her with his tell-all scope.

Hmm... Remember last time a Neill villain ran off? They disappeared for a long time! So... Mombi... hides in Davy Jones. ... So, she doesn't disappear. Okay. But that's all she does!

Davy and Bucky enter the Nome Kingdom, where some help from #9 protects them and helps them make Bucky the new and temporary ruler. He has to keep on, and uses some explosive door knobs to blow attacking Nomes away. These turn out to be transformed Gabooches named Tom, Dick, Harry, and their sister Flummox. These queer creatures are like tiny storks with bellows for heads and arrows for feet. They join Davy and Bucky.

Davy winds up in a land of "funny bones," who chase them to the edge of the Deadly Desert, where the rainbow lands and at Polychrome's intervention (I find it amazing that Neill remembered her, given she had been absent since The Tin Woodman of Oz), lets them get to Oz by going (there's no other way to say it) over the rainbow.

After traversing the Stiff River, Davy and Bucky and company wind up in Game River, where you cannot leave until you have won every game. A lot of giant fireflies (called Thunderbugs) interrupt the final game, allowing them to make an escape, despite interference from a safety pin policeman.

The river then takes them through a dark tunnel inhabited by illegal magic users who are either scared away by the Thunderbugs clinging to Davy or distracted with a free pie from Davy's hold. However, soon after this, the river suns out of water, and it is up to the Gabooches to find how to fill it up again. They find the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, who have had a lot of rivers rolled up and put away so they wouldn't fall in and rust or get soggy.

... Wow, Neill, way to make these two classic Oz characters sound like jerks! And they're messing up the ecosystem!

Anyways, hearing the plight of Davy and Bucky, they allow the river to be unrolled so the journey to the Emerald City may be resumed. Along the way, they come across Wise Acres Country Club where all the Uncles live, including Uncle Sam, who Bucky says is his uncle.

To be honest, I didn't get who Uncle Sam was until I saw the illustration of an old man with a thick goatee and a thin layer of hair on top. It is, of course, the American icon Uncle Sam.

All the Uncles ask to visit the Emerald City, too, and Davy obliges, as there is plenty of room. Soon, the Lake Quad is reached, but as it is deeper than the river and Davy is carry so much weight, he sinks, but everyone manages to swim to shore, the Uncles keeping the Tin Woodman and Scarecrow from serious water damage. However, Mombi is forced to leave as well, and the Gabooches see her and chase her into a volcano. Having followed the adventure, Ozma, Glinda, and the Wizard follow in a Scalawagon and shrink the volcano around Mombi, trapping her tight inside it. The volcano is relocated to the Emerald City, where the bakers who had tormented Bucky may now resume their baking without fear of pirates, and at night, it can be used in a fireworks display. Jack Pumpkinhead repaints Mombi into an agreeable citizen.

The Gabooches try Jenny Jump's turn-style and it turns them into three boys and a girl, which they realize must be their true forms. Davy can use his hold and the rivers to deliver baked goods around Oz, and Bucky decides he will stay in Oz as an assistant.

While Neill is still loose and nonsensical, this book actually has a clear, linear plot. In classic Oz book form, there is a journey the characters undertake and they overcome obstacles on the way. However, unlike better Oz books, Bucky and Davy don't have much of a real motivation for going to the Emerald City.

Neill also gets a little weird about his chronology.  Are we supposed to believe Mombi went undetected aboard Davy for four whole days? And speaking of Mombi, it's a weird, yet imaginative way for Mombi to return, and I think it's a more imaginative way to deal with her rather than having her melted. (As it is, the painted Mombi does get wet and shows no ill effects.)

Neill's wording is weird, too. The Nonestic Ocean that Baum introduced and Thompson mentioned several times is called the Nonentic Ocean. The Tin Woodman's name gets spelled Nickchopper. And where's the editor? Because while Jenny Jump has her name spelled that way, when it mentions something that belongs to her, it's suddenly "Jennie's." And weirdest of all, when they're still in the Ocean, Davy says they're in Oz. Which we diehard fans know isn't the case.

In Neill's art, throughout his over thirty-five year tenure as Royal Illustrator, his art became a bit simpler. Sometimes we had richly detailed work, but near the end, we got a cartoonish line art style. (I think Baum would have approved, as he said Neill's work wasn't humorous enough.) You'll have to get your own copy, but there's a big surprise for fans of Neill's work on pages 184 and 185.

After Scalawagons, Lucky Bucky is a huge improvement, even if it doesn't live up to the standards of Baum and Thompson. It seems Neill was finally coming into his own.

Now, I said Neill wrote four Oz books, but his last one didn't have the standard story behind it. But you'll have to wait for next time.

The Scalawagons of Oz

Neill was not dissuaded by his editor's reworking of his work. Perhaps Thompson's own perseverance for her nineteen year term as Royal Historian inspired him. (The two had shared a closer friendship than Neill and Baum had.) But whatever determination this man of Scottish, Irish, and Dutch descent possessed, it did not help his next book gel at all.

Perhaps The Scalawagons of Oz, his Oz book for 1941, has an excuse for this. In the introduction, Neill writes:

Day by day strirring events happen in the Land of OZ which we are compelled to let pass. No one will ever know of them.

It would be impossible to tell you all that happens in a whole year.

This book is the record of less than a week.

So Neill is chronicling the events of a few days in Oz, focusing on certain characters. (It also offers a lovely excuse for all the Oz fiction that comes out nowadays.)

#9 has a second job, he's assistant to the Wizard of Oz! However, the Wizard's been at work on a top secret project. So secret, even #9 doesn't know what's going on. Only Tik-Tok knows: Scalawagons! These flying cars are being mass produced on Carrot Mountain for everybody in Oz. They run on flabbergas and Tik-Tok is using a mallet to knock sense into them.

You know, I think I know why people don't like this now.

Anyways, after the Wizard leaves, and after knocking sense into all the Scalawagons, Tik-Tok looks outside ... and winds down. This allows our mysterious villain the Bell-Snickle to enter and send Tik-Tok clanging down the Mountain, and then he gives the Scalawagons some flabbergas that sends them flying out of the workshop. Soaking himself with flabbergas, he flies away, too.

The Wizard had planned a party at Glinda's palace to unveil the Scalawagons, but Glinda discovers through her Book of Records that the Wizard's surprise has disappeared. Jenny Jump is the first to volunteer to look for them, and she is joined by the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Sawhorse. However, the Sawhorse proves too competitive, and his speed dries out the Tin Woodman. (You know... that actually makes a little bit of sense.) After an adventure in the Winkie Woods renders the the Tin Woodman completely immobile, Jenny makes use of her fairy gifts and sends the others back to Glinda's. (Of course, you realize, that means Jenny could have set off on her own and the story could have gone the way it goes without them.)

You know, this story is getting so tedious, I'm having trouble keeping my attention on this blog. (Come on, just a few more, and we get to JACK SNOW...)

Along the way to find the Scalawagons, Jenny meets the Nota-Bells, little men who live in bells and make music, and #9 joins her, and they rescue Tik-Tok from the town of the Lollys and Pops. And somehow they wind up flying and find the Scalawagons flying over the desert, which they take back to Glinda's palace.

While the festivities finally begin, the bloated Bell-Snickle arrives, but Jenny puts a hole in it, deflating it. It hurries off again and Jenny uses her Scalawagon to go after it. Things aren't quite as easy, because the Bell-Snickle steal Jenny's gifts, then tries to make a bunch of walking trees conquer the Emerald City and ... Ummm... Yeah...

Finally, Jenny brings the Bell-Snickle to justice, and Ozma agrees with her that by use of the magic turn style, he will be made smaller into a rubber stamp, and also be used as a rubber stopper to stop things Ozma doesn't approve of.

And then there's a celebration and all...

Just about the only redeeming thing about Scalawagons is getting to go on an adventure with the resourceful (if still somewhat flighty) Jenny Jump. The plot is a big, confusing, jumbled mess that can only be enjoyed by reading it. Attempting to examine it makes my head ache. Ugh...

Baum brought technology to Oz in little ways. In Tik-Tok of Oz, the Shaggy Man and Ozma have what seem to be cell phones, and there has always been electricity and, as fans assume from the luxurious baths in the palace, indoor plumbing in Oz. But most Ozites look to technology as common place, and it doesn't play a huge part in their lives.

The problems with Scalawagons, and to a similar extent, Thompson's Ozoplanes, is that travel machines in Oz take away a large part of the charm of tramping around Oz looking for adventure. Rather than face a giant monster with wits, an Ozoplane or Scalawagon could just fly over it. Stranded outside of Oz? Call the Emerald City for an Ozoplane lift! It's no wonder that later Oz authors ignored these two inventions. In fact, Neill's later books don't really mention them, at least, not that I recall.

Two more Neill books. Are they as messy as this, or have a good story at heart like Wonder City? Let's see...

The Wonder City of Oz

With the departure of Ruth Plumly Thompson, Reilly & Lee decided to turn to someone who had had 35 years of experience in Oz: illustrator John R. Neill. Neill had made up stories for his children, and had written a number of comic strips on his own. Anyways, he'd illustrated for Baum and Thompson, so surely he must have picked up on their style, right?

His first book was published in 1940: The Wonder City of Oz.

Let me warn you: if you thought Thompson's stories could get disjointed, you haven't seen ANYTHING yet!

We open in the New Jersey home of a 15 year old Jenny Jump, who spies Siko Pompous the leprechaun about to steal her pepper cheese. (Pepper cheese? Pepper jack cheese? Jenny and I must have something in common!) She catches him, and promises to let him have the cheese if he will make her a fairy. He makes her half a fairy. (And eats all her cheese!) One ear, one eye, eight fingers, and her ears are fairy. He refuses to do more so she won't get into trouble.

I'm assuming trouble is her middle name, because soon Jenny's fairy foot sends her flying high into the air, far away from her New Jersey home!

Meanwhile, in the Emerald City (which is the titular "Wonder City"), a celebration is being prepared for Ozma's birthday. Neill already begins to exhibit his new take on Oz. He dips into nonsense by having Jellia accidentally sew her mouth shut, and so she can still talk, Ozma enchants her so she can talk through her ear.

During a parade for the birthday, Jenny crash lands in Ozma's carriage. Introductions are made, and Jenny is made welcome. When Jenny spots a Munchkin boy who accidentally sends himself soaring through the air (don't ask), she uses her fairy foot to rescue him, and the boy, who calls himself Number Nine, promises to be her servant.

Jenny wants to stay in Oz, and Ozma welcomes her to do so, but when she expresses the desire to be a queen, she asks when the next election is. Ozma does not know what an election is, but decides, for the fun of it, they will have an Ozlection, and she and Jenny will run against each other.

Jenny spends the night with Number Nine and his family, where he is one of fourteen children. The next morning, the two head out together. Quickly, Jenny shows how their relationship will be. She threatens Number Nine (can I call him #9 for short? I'll do that) to accompany her to the ruins of a wicked magician's home that had exploded (and THAT is why Ozma banned unauthorized magic). Jenny goes through a turn-style she finds and discovers her clothes have changed somewhat. Discovering how to use this magic turn-style that turns styles, she and #9 take it to the Emerald City to set up a style shop!

You might think a magic clothing store would be a terrible idea, but somehow, Neill writes about it with enough enthusiasm and energy that it somehow works.

#9 is made to wear "whistlebreeches" by Jenny, as a reminder not to loaf, because when he stops working, the whistles whistles sharply and loudly.

Meanwhile, Ozma and her court decide, through a series of homophones, that the votes in the Ozlection will be counted by people depositing their right shoes.

And #9 is having no luck with the whistlebreeches, making too much noise. Scraps notices and chases #9 into Jenny's shop, accidentally running through the turn-style, which changes her classic patchwork dress into a boy's bathing suit. And there's a bit where the houses in the Emerald City fight...

Jellia gives Jenny her shoe as thanks for freeing her lips by completing the dress that Jellia had been working on. Jenny receives many more shoes, before #9 points out that people are leaving left shoes, which are invalid as votes.

The votes are to be dropped off at Jack Pumpkinhead's home, which is a decommissioned Ozoplane. It's not clear why Jack is living in the Emerald City instead of his pumpkin home in the Winkie Country. Maybe this is where he's begun to stay while visiting the Emerald City. But during the night, the Heelers, creatures who enjoy eating votes (or shoes?) sneak in, but Jenny and the unwitting Cowardly Lion manage to defeat them.

Quickly, #9 is befriended by a mysterious magical man who readers will quickly guess is the Wizard of Oz. He makes himself a pair of whistlebreeches, much to Jenny's anger. When #9 tells him that Jenny would be much nicer if she was younger, the Wizard gets Siko Pompus to make Jenny de-age to 11 years old, but in the process, she will lose her fairy powers.

Jenny notices herself getting smaller as she helps a red box-like man find a job. She then runs into Scraps, who, after a little fight, is willing to let bygones be bygones, and they visit Jack. But then Jenny accidentally sets off his Ozoplane home. (Those things are really touchy, aren't they?). The three wind up prisoners on a planet of some sort inhabited by chocolate soldiers who take them prisoner and intend to invade and conquer Oz.

Meanwhile, #9 is running the style shop alone, letting his family all get new clothes, and then the aid of a dragonette must be enlisted to rid the shop of two nomes intent on stealing the magic turn-style. Surprisingly, Sir Hokus of Pokes appears, which is odd, as we thought we'd seen the last of the bluff old knight in The Yellow Knight of Oz. But here he is, willing to give the dragonette a merry chase.

As the chocolate soldier's planet is cold (if it was too warm, they would melt), the guard guarding the prison freezes solid. Jenny manages to "eat" her way out of prison (the chocolate is bitter, and she couldn't stomach a lot, so she bites and spits). She is unable to rescue Jack and Scraps before the guards are changed, so she decides to head straight for the Ozoplane and get back to Oz to warn Ozma of the invasion.

Back in Oz, #9 has begun to worry about the lack of Jenny, and takes the Sawhorse to look for her, heading first for the Quadling Country, which proves to be a wise move, because it is there that Jenny crash lands the Ozoplane! They hurry back to the Emerald City, noting the chocolate soldiers are moving in. Finding that Ozma is visiting Glinda, Jenny does the only thing she can do: open the gates to the invaders. Except that the magic turn-style has been placed in the gates, so when the soldiers march through, they come out as tiny tin soldiers, who are then made the playthings of some local children.

#9 is sent to the palace to find the Wizard so he can rescue Scraps and Jack, but #9 doesn't know the Wizard, so when he sees him, he thinks he is just a crazy old man. (Neill's illustrations show him looking a little different as well, which doesn't help, either.) But the Wizard uses a tell-all scope to find them, and uses a golden ray to bring the two prisoners home. Shortly, the Wizard finally introduces himself to #9.

The Woggle-Bug finds the rules of the Ozlection must be amended and he suggests that all voters be weighed, and whoever has the most weight on their votes, wins. But when the weights are counted, they come up equal, until they realize Siko Pompus has not voted. He makes his vote... for Ozma.

Jenny is furious, and goes on a rampage, releasing tigers from tiger-lilies, bulls from bullrushes, lions from dandelions, and other such animals. She soon regrets her anger, but is knocked unconscious. The animals are rounded up by #9's father and General Jinjur, who are both farmers, and they take the animals home.

The Wizard finds Jenny and sees that she desperately needs her bad attributes removed, so he does so, and these take the form of a black wasp (bad temper), a green snake (envy), and a fat red toad (ambition?). When Jenny awakes in the palace, she finds a surprise: Ozma has decided to make her a duchess and Chief Stylist of Oz.

Jenny and #9 return to the shop where Siko Pompus awaits with some gifts for Jenny. An eyeglass with an ivory handle, a gold slipper, a pair of gloves with no thumbs, and a pair of ear-muffs. Trying these, Jenny discovers that they will restore her fairy powers while she uses them. She decides to be kinder to #9, only having the shop open half the day now, and bringing in his "Sister 6" to help, and the two begin their relationship over again as friends.

I hadn't heard very nice things about Neill's Oz books, so my expectations were low when I read The Wonder City of Oz. But there is an upside to the unevenness of Neill's first Oz book: an overenthusiastic editor rewrote and added much of the plot, including the ridiculous Ozlection and the Wizard performing what we'd identify today as a lobotomy on Jenny. (The Ozlection was likely thought of as 1940 was an election year, and perhaps the editor wanted to help children understand it better through the fantasy of Oz.) Apparently, Neill wasn't crazy about these changes. There are no illustrations of the Ozlection proceedings at all, and those that are there could easily have been for other purposes.

If this is completely true, even with Neill's silliness, the story as he wrote it takes on a different tone than what comes across in the finished book. Sadly, it is unclear as to why Jenny was letting the animals run wild in the Emerald City, but we would have seen her go from a contrary teenager to a young girl, a member of the nobility of Oz, who would manage to have a better control of her temper, with magic tools. Jenny even becomes a hero by saving Oz using her magic tool and her wits.

While Neill might not have been a masterful storyteller, knowing this about his books, I can't write Wonder City off as "bad." Look at the character development for Jenny, and the wonderful character of #9. Frankly, I like Jenny Jump. Thompson, in all her books, had failed to add any new child characters to Ozma's court, so it was refreshing to see one with a twist: unlike Dorothy, Betsy, and Trot, Jenny does not live in the palace, and she runs her own business.

So, Neill wasn't a completely poor choice to succeed Thompson, but his first book was hampered with silly one-note characters (I didn't mention them all) and an editor who was not working with the author's intentions. (Most of the nonsensical logic seems to be from those additions.) Neill would write three more Oz books, so let's see how he did there before passing final judgement.