Dorothy of Oz

So, with Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return having come and gone from theaters, I realized I haven't discussed the book it was based on here. Dorothy of Oz was the first Oz book by Roger S. Baum, one of L. Frank Baum's great-grandsons. Seemingly, he wrote it on a challenge from a member of the International Wizard of Oz Club. (I'll bet it was Fred Meyer, but if anyone knows who it was, I'd be interested to know.) This was the result, packaged into a fine book by Books of Wonder, illustrated by Elizabeth Miles. (Eric Shanower indicated in the afterword of Adventures in Oz that he'd been approached to illustrate the book, but decided not to take the job.)

The book opens with Dorothy in Kansas. The Wizard appears in the end of the book, and the text mentions Dorothy knows about dama fruit, so this book seems to be set after Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, but before The Emerald City of Oz. Glinda sends the Silver Shoes to Dorothy with a message that she's needed in Oz, and the Silver Shoes have enough magic to get her to Oz and back home to Kansas again. (The Magic Belt is completely absent from this book.)

In Oz, Dorothy finds the palace of Gayelette and Quelala, but it's been taken over by Gayelette's Jester, who has been corrupted by the Wicked Witch of the West's wand. (Remember that from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? ... Yeah, me neither.) He's turned everyone in the palace into porcelain figurines, including the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion. When he takes Toto,  Dorothy makes him an offer: if he lets the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Lion accompany her, she will bring Glinda to him. He agrees. Dorothy also manages to take the Princess of the Dainty China Country, who she found among the other figurines.

Dorothy and her friends face several obstacles on their way: dragons, a curse from the Wicked Witch of the East, a river that requires them to build the talking boat Tugg, and an enchanted maze. Finally, Dorothy has to scheme with Glinda and Ozma on how they can stop the Jester and restore everyone to their original forms.

Roger S. Baum's books are not the most loved Oz books. While he can come up with interesting situations (the Maze is a particular favorite scene of mine), his writing style leaves a bit to be desired. It's easy to read, but very flat. While the original Mr. Baum was admittedly not the greatest writer, he still managed to add a third dimension to his characters and world. Not having everything spelled out and having some odd gaps actually added to the charm of Oz rather than detracting from it. Roger lacks that same charm. This isn't to say that his writing is horrible, but he pales in the shadow of his great-grandfather.

That said, likely due to Peter Glassman being on board with the creation of this book, I believe Dorothy of Oz is the best of Roger's Oz books that I've read so far. (Three.) I did find his point of returning to characters and places from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz irksome. We have Boq and the Queen of the Field Mice returning in a chapter about the Yellow Brick Road. Then we have some expansion on the Dainty China Country, which is actually a nice touch.

Elizabeth Miles' charming illustrations also help the book stand out. Her figures are charming, though for the people of Dainty China Country, I did find the concept of each one having a base awkward. (How do they move around and interact with those things?) That said, while she gives us plenty of illustrations of Dorothy and her friends, we get far too few of other characters. There's only a couple of pictures of the Jester, and one that's unclear as to whether it's Glinda or Ozma.

Dorothy of Oz should be easily available if you want to check it out, both in print form and in an ebook format.

(And anyone wanting an idea of how close Legends of Oz is to the book, yes, Candy County is in the book, but it occurs as a largely self-contained episode before Dorothy finds out about the Jester. Marshal Mallow was created for the film, based on another character, and Wiser serves a very different purpose in the plot.)

Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage

This is the first time I've blogged about a Roger S. Baum book. It's the third Oz book of his I've read. Coincidentally, I also own only three of his books.

Roger, a great-grandson of L. Frank Baum, was approached by a member of the International Wizard of Oz Club to write more Oz books. His first book, Dorothy of Oz, was published in 1989 and has been adapted into an animated film which will be released next year.

Roger has produced twelve additional Oz books, the latest to be released next year. Dorothy of Oz met with warm reception, but subsequent books under Roger's name have had mixed reviews, generally due to the books practically ignoring L. Frank Baum's original continuity.

My first exposure to this story was its animated film adaptation, Lion of Oz, produced in 2000. Realizing we'd be covering it eventually in the Movies of Oz podcasts, I decided to get the book so I'd have a fuller appreciation of it.

Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage follows a young lion in Africa who is captured and brought to a circus where he is befriended by the balloonist, Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, who gives him a badge of Courage.

In the first logic problem of the story, Oscar takes the Lion for a balloon ride, which happens to be the same fateful ride that hurls Oscar into the Land of Oz. So, it also hurls the Lion into Oz as well.

See, there was no need for this. Who takes a lion, regardless of how tame it is, for a balloon ride? Furthermore, why is it necessary that the Lion was not a native Ozian lion? In fact, the story could have been told easily with that premise.

The plot gets muddled at times but remains pretty easy to follow. The Wicked Witch of the East finds the Lion and tasks him to find the Flower of Oz, the source of all good in Oz. Lion meets and is joined by SillyOzBul Percival, a young girl named Wimsik, her toys Caroline and Captain Fitzgerald, and a baby dragon named Burt.

Along their journey, they come across a curious sign-man, mini-Munchkins, a whirlpool in the River of Flowers, a vanishing silver bridge, a seamstress who turns people into decorations for a dress for the Wicked Witch of the West, Burt's parents, and 4,999 SillyOzBuls.

Lion even meets the Wizard himself, though Roger explains that it's been so long that Lion no longer recognizes him. I guess Lion has a really short memory for faces, because his adventure seems to start almost as soon as he lands in Oz. Are we to assume he spends months before being joined by anyone? Not likely, as the text doesn't indicate that. If he forgets what Oscar looks like this easily, then why is making the Witch set him free (she lies that she has Oscar captive) such a big deal for him?

There is also a major logic problem in how the plot is resolved, but as I'm reviewing and not analyzing, I won't spoil that.

Not only does the plot suffer from critical logic problems, but the text could get downright dull to read.

Captain Fitzgerald looked at the lion, and said, "This lion must be brave. Look at his ribbon and Badge of Courage."

"Yes, he must be brave," repeated Caroline.

"We will leave in the morning," said Lion.

 Roger sounds as bored as his characters.

 There's some nasty errors. In a repeated case, "you're" is spelled "your." Very often, characters speak for more than one paragraph. Now, when this happens, there is supposed to be another quotation mark at the beginning of the next paragraph to indicate that it is dialogue, but this isn't done. And most of the time, there was no need to break into another paragraph.

Considering the publisher, Yellow Brick Road Publishers, Inc., was Roger's own company, I begin to suspect a decent editor wasn't on board. I recall Dorothy of Oz being much better than this, but that was published by Books of Wonder.

I even have to say the animated movie managed to revise and streamline the story into a better narrative, though some logic problems are still retained. Sam and I will cover that eventually in our Movies podcasts, and we've discussed bumping it up to tie in with the release of the Dorothy of Oz movie.

Unless you're a fan of Roger Baum's books, or just gotta have all of the published Oz fiction, I wouldn't recommend this one. There are much better prequel stories about the Wizard and the Lion out there.