Policeman Bluejay

In 1907, the Twinkle Tales got a sequel: a 22-chapter book titled Policeman Bluejay, and it was this book that eventually led to the true identity of "Laura Bancroft" being revealed. It was reissued in 1911 as Babes in Birdland (alongside the collected edition of Twinkle and Chubbins), and was reissued again in 1918 under that title, but now with Baum's name on it.

Baum had suggested it be subtitled "An Oz Book," but the publishers decided not to. Perhaps Baum saw "Oz" as a way to help the book sell more strongly rather than suggest it be included as part of the expanded universe of Oz. There's not really a reason why this and the Twinkle Tales couldn't take place in the same universe as the Oz series, however, there are no ties to connect it to the Oz books either. Clearly, Baum was so resigned to being "The Oz Man" by this time, he saw it as his brand.

The story opens with Twinkle and Chubbins walking into a forest with a picnic basket, and when I read it recently, I realized it could easily be picking up directly after Sugar Loaf Mountain, which ends with them leaving the mountain with a picnic basket they haven't eaten from yet.

Suddenly, the trees seem to close in around them, and a spiny-shelled turtle enters, begging to be petted, saying that it was once "a beautiful maiden," enchanted by a cruel tuxix, which is "a magician, a sorcerer, a wizard, and a witch all rolled into one." However, none other than Policeman Bluejay from Bandit Jim Crow flies in and warns them that it is the tuxix herself, trying to trap them. Since the plot is spoiled, the tuxix turns Twinkle and Chubbins into larks, except for their heads, which become small enough to match their bodies.

Policeman Bluejay befriends the two children, leading them to an abandoned nest, and he brings an eagle who brings the basket along so they may eat the food from it. (Since they are now smaller, the food will last longer.)

Twinkle and Chubbins meet their neighbors: the squirrel Wisk who lives in a hollow near the nest, Mrs. Possum, who lives in a hollow at the base of the tree with her four children, and Mrs. Hootaway the grey Owl, who lives in a hollow at the top of the tree. The child-larks (an improvised name for what Twinkle and Chubbins have become) also are visited by many birds who offer stories about how mankind and animals can be so cruel to birds. One of the birds mentions Jim Crow, though Twinkle doesn't seem to think that it was, in fact, her old pet.

The next morning, the child-larks are rudely awakened by hunters who kill all their neighbors (Mrs. Hootaway's dying words are especially poignant: "Remember that—all—is love; all is—love!"), and the child-larks escape with the help of the eagle, whose home they briefly visit.

Policeman Bluejay lets Twinkle and Chubbins take care of orphaned hatchlings, which they find quite tiresome, until he finds another substitute parent.

Then Twinkle and Chubbins are allowed to visit the Paradise of Birds in the middle of the forest, a splendid haven for birds where everything a bird could wish for is instantly provided if it is not already at hand. Music plays always, so there is no need for birds to sing, and there is even a pool of dry water for birds to play in. However, this is quite an exclusive utopia: Twinkle and Chubbins are only allowed entrance because they are not forest birds. However, while there, they are told they may be restored to their true forms if they eat a tingleberry.

Upon leaving, Policeman Bluejay finds his position usurped by the Rooks, and he gathers his friends to fight the Rooks into submission. Then, he helps Twinkle and Chubbins find the tingleberry bush.

Twinkle is restored, but the berry Chubbins ate was partly withered, and he retains his bird's wings. Policeman Bluejay finds another tingleberry, which completes the restoration. And then, as the children leave the forest, they have something surprising for Baum: disorientation at resuming their true forms.

"Don't your legs feel heavy, Twink?"
"Yes," said she; "do yours?"
"Awful," said he.

 The book takes a few steps forward for the Twinkle Tales. Death is directly addressed as a large number of Twinkle and Chubbins' friends are killed in front of them. While it's sad, it is not written in a way to disturb children.

As a 21st century reader, I can appreciate this. Baum clearly understood that while children shouldn't be terrified, not exposing them to such topics would be a bad thing. For a series aimed at young readers, Baum never talks down to them.

Policeman Bluejay offers an open-ended conclusion to the Twinkle Tales. Baum could have continued with the series, but abstained. He did consider the series some of his best work at one point and even suggested that Twinkle and Chubbins and Policeman Bluejay be reissued in an omnibus edition titled Baum's Wonder Book.

Baum's idea was finally carried out when the book The Twinkle Tales was issued in 2005. Sadly, this edition left out many of the illustrations from the books, only selecting a small few. Twinkle and Chubbins' reprint by the International Wizard of Oz Club included all the illustrations, and Policeman Bluejay was available in a photo-reproduction by Scholar's Facsimiles and Reprints, an edition I do not own. It was also reprinted as the Baum novel in Oz-Story 2, but all of the colored illustrations (I can assume it would have been too much work to remove the color) were dropped there.

The downside to these reprints is that they are generally not available to children, Baum's intended audience, and the design of them is not entirely child-friendly either. Perhaps this will be rectified someday.

The Twinkle Tales

As part of L. Frank Baum's bumper crop of literature in 1906, he released six little chapter books under the pseudonym "Laura Bancroft."

The books were published by Reilly & Britton in small volumes, broken into very short chapters. They were the right size for small hands to handle and Baum kept the stories very light so young readers wouldn't be bogged down or scared.

In 1911, the books were reissued in a collected book titled Twinkle and Chubbins. This book was later reprinted by the International Wizard of Oz Club in 1987, and in 2005, the book and its sequel (for a sequel it had, next blog) were collected into a volume titled The Twinkle Tales. (Which sadly didn't include all of Maginel Wright Enright's illustrations.)

The Twinkle Tales was the name of the series in its original book series form, and as I'll reveal, it actually makes a better title than Twinkle and Chubbins.

The series follows a little girl called Twinkle, who lives near the town of Edgeley, which is in North Dakota. Yes, Baum culls from his time in Aberdeen, but don't look for any autobiographical basis here.

---

In Mister Woodchuck, which the book edition places as the first story, Twinkle's father sets a trap for woodchucks. Twinkle watches it to see the woodchuck get caught. Instead, she finds herself outside of the Woodchuck's home, where he introduces her to his family and Judge Stoneyheart. To punish Twinkle's father, she is made to step into a trap, when she wakes up. She asks her father not to set out any more traps because the woodchucks have a right to life.

Mister Woodchuck shows Baum's love for animals quite clearly, making a touching yet humorous story about how mankind should respect animal life. Twinkle herself is a dear little girl, though I realized that with a few alterations, she could easily be a young Dorothy.

---

Bandit Jim Crow is second. The title would be offensive today, but I'm not convinced that Baum intended the title character to be anything but a crow. It is also the oddball of the series as Twinkle is only briefly in the story when she finds a wounded crow and bandages its wing. However, Jim Crow is very cruel and after he heals, he escapes, kills some newborn chicks, then goes to the forest.

In the forest, Jim Crow is regarded with caution by the other birds, but he remains scornful of them and causes trouble, including eating their eggs. Policeman Bluejay is called in and he keeps an eye on Jim Crow and stops him for a time, until the crow realizes he can disguise himself as a white bird in a chalk pit. When Policeman Bluejay grows wise, he gets many birds to assist him in pecking Jim Crow's eyes out.

The final chapter features the kind birds of the forest bringing food and water to Jim Crow, forgiving him of his past transgressions as he is now disabled and can do them no further harm. "And I wonder what his thoughts were—don't you?" Baum asks the reader, implying that Jim Crow is repenting of his wrongdoing.

While Jim Crow is a fine tale, it's curious as it feels more like Bambi than Oz. It's more in the vein of Baum's Animal Fairy Tales, except that there is no magic involved. It was also the most popular of the Twinkle Tales. I guess people really love stories about animals.

---

Third in the series is Prarie Dog Town, in which we meet Twinkle's friend, the school teacher's son Chubbins. Chubbins is a classic Baum little boy companion, like a midway point between Tot from Dot and Tot of Merryland and Button-Bright as he appeared in The Road to Oz. He's cleverer than those two, though he is not as well defined as Twinkle, a recurring feature of Baum's boy characters who accompany girls. (Though Sky Island has Button-Bright defy it suddenly.)

Twinkle and Chubbins go watch prarie dogs, who invite them into their town. This involves being shrunk down by magician Presto Digi, and the two children get to see that these animals have a little civilization of their own. After a lunch with the mayor, the two children leave the town and are restored to their size.

Baum suggests it may have been a dream:

"Do you think we've been asleep, Chub?" asked the girl.
"'Course not," replied Chubbins, with a big yawn. "It's easy 'nough to know that, Twink, 'cause I'm sleepy now!"

 Again, we see a common theme here in the Twinkle stories: animals. However, the remaining stories go for more traditional Baum fantasies.

---

Prince Mud-Turtle is the fourth story. In it, Twinkle finds a pretty mud-turtle that she makes a pet. (First Jim Crow, then a mud turtle...) On Saturday, it begins speaking to her and tells her that it is the enchanted fairy Prince Melga, transformed by the Corrugated Giant. He enlists Twinkle's help in defeating the giant and breaking the enchantment.

The next week (the turtle can only speak on Saturdays), Melga whisks Twinkle to the Black Mountains, where he instructs her to rub her eyes with a magic maita-leaf so she can see the fairy land. He shows her the way to the Corrugated Giant's castle, who makes her his slave, and puts her to work tending his kitchen fire.

Obeying Melga's instruction, the turtle is thrown into the cook pot, restoring him to his true form (in some traditional fairy tales, enchantments were broken by killing the animal a person had been transformed into in a specific way, this is a less grim version), and the giant is quickly dispatched. Twinkle joins a celebration before she's sent back home, where her mother tells her the mud-turtle has run away.

Baum also seems to set up future possibilities for the series. Before she goes home, Twinkle is told by Melga, "as your eyes have been rubbed with the magic maita-leaf, you will doubtless always see many strange sights that are hidden from other mortals."

This is probably the most Oz-like of the Twinkle Tales: a journey to a land of fantasy where a wrong must be righted. However, it skews a bit more toward the traditional fairy tale, and calls to mind Baum's short story "The Witchcraft of Mary-Marie." Overall, likely one of the best of the series.

---

Fifth is Twinkle's Enchantment, very much a travelogue in which Twinkle goes berry-picking and crosses a line of enchantment, entering a magic land where she meets the rolling stone that gathers no moss, a dancing bear, birds of a feather, a green monkey (predating Woot's transformation in The Tin Woodman of Oz), and Prince Nimble of the grasshoppers, as well as other strange and wondrous sights.

It is again suggested that the adventure was a dream, because while the dancing bear fills Twinkle's bucket of berries, Twinkle's mother finds her asleep in the grass with an empty bucket.

The story is charming and pun-filled, and is one of Baum's more whimsical stories.

---

Finally, we have Sugar Loaf Mountain. Chubbins has moved to Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains. (Finally! Baum takes it to my home area!) Twinkle is visiting, and they climb a mountain called Sugar Loaf Mountain. They find a locked door and key and enter, finding a land consisting entirely of sugar.

Baum notes that there are three types of people. People of white sugar seem to be in the highest class, a darker sugar makes up "more humble" citizens, while people of the darkest sugar seem to be of "less account," being servants.

The king of Sugar Loaf Mountain is courteous to the visitors, but a couple people in his court share daring secrets with Twinkle and Chubbins: Lord Cloy says he is not pure sugar, but only frosted. Princess Sakareen believes she is hollow. After a ride in a carriage and an accident, it is revealed that Cloy is actually made of a marshmallow-like substance, but Sakareen is not hollow. Cloy is disgraced.

Twinkle and Chubbins decide to leave (they are getting thirsty as there is no water in the kingdom), but after they are out, they realize they left the key inside: Sugar Loaf Mountain is now cut off from being discovered ever again.

This one offers some commentary on ethnic social class in the United States at the time. Baum refrains from actually depicting anyone negatively on the color of their sugar, and I felt that Cloy's disgrace was depicted negatively: he is shunned not because of his character but his constitution, which he can't help.

And of course, this story brings to mind the Candy Valley from Dot and Tot of Merryland, particularly Cloy's marshmallow construction.

While reading the series again recently, I couldn't help but think that they might make for a great basis for some animated shorts. Maybe someday, someone will.

The Twinkle Tales are some rather nicely written Baum tales, though I can think of other Baum stories I prefer, so I'm not quick to call them his best. Baum managed to differ enough from his regular style so the "Laura Bancroft" persona seems quite convincing. Overall, this is a great choice if you want Baum at his lightest.