The Magic Of OZ!

The Magic of OZ - A Faithful Record of the Remarkable Adventures of Dorothy and Trot and the Wizard of OZ, together with the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger, and Cap'n Bill in their successful search for a Magical and Beautiful Birthday Present for Princess Ozma of OZ

The title and wildly elaborate sub-title rather say it all -- almost. The story begins on Mount Munch on the far reaches of OZ and at the top of the mountain live the Hyups. One young Hyup is the boy Kiki Aru who grows restless and when he learns a powerful magic word of transformation (Pyrzqxql) leaves his home and seeks adventure. He meets Ruggedo the Gnome King who had been banished from OZ and together they hatch a scheme to return to OZ and encourage the wild animals there to revolt against the rule of Ozma. 

Meanwhile Dorothy and Trot and others start to wonder what they can get Ozma for her upcoming birthday. Dorothy wants to make a cake with monkeys hidden inside. Trot learns of a magical flower from the Glass Cat which is on a remote island. So, they head off to look, the Wizard with Dororthy as they ride the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger and Trot and Cap'n Bill on foot. The former turn up in the forest at the same time the two baddies are pitching their scheme and get changed into various animals. The latter get trapped on the island of the flower literally when they take root. Of course, eventually they are all saved, but it's a wild ride. 

Now I'm not the target audience for these books by any stretch of the imagination, but Baum's constant fault in my estimation is that he's always adding characters and never taking them away. And apparently his readers expected to have their favorites at least name checked. I think every OZ character is at Ozma's party at the end of the story save perhaps for the elusive glass cat. I found I liked the Eureka the glass cat a lot in this one as her stuck up attitude was fun and very catlike. 

The Magic of OZ was the last OZ book to be published in his lifetime. The authorship of the next one is open to some speculation. We'll get into that next with Glinda of OZ. 

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