Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz - L. Frank Baum Book Review

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Review Summaries

"On her way back from Australia, Dorothy Gale visits her cousin Zebediah in California. An earthquake hits and the ground opens and swallows the girl and boy, Dorothy's white cat Eureka, and Jim the horse, along with the buggy Zeb was driving. Soon after, the animals are talking, and who should show up but the Wizard of Oz himself, back in his balloon and recently employed by the Bailum and Barney's circus. They all find themselves in the Land of the Mangaboos -- vegetable people who grow on plants, live for five years, and then must be replanted. They escape to the Valley of Voe, where everyone eats dama-fruit which makes them invisible, including large and fierce bears who will kill and eat them. So they race up a Spiral Staircase inside the Pyramid Mountain to the Land of the Gargoyles, where everyone and everything is made of wood (although on the way they also meet the Braided Man, who used to manufacture Imported Holes for American Swiss Cheese, then Adjustable Post-Holes, and now makes rustles and flutters). And so on. This, the fourth of Baum's Oz books (published 1908), is weaker than its predecessors. Much of it is little more than travelogue and takes place, like _Ozma of Oz_, mostly outside of Oz proper. There's no ongoing serious threat, like Jinjur's army or the Nome King's minions, and a concluding murder trial of Eureka the cat is somewhat contrived and anticlimactic."
David Loftus, Resident L. Frank Baum Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book - very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - fantasy world/fantasy past
Plotlets: - exploring a CUTESY fantasy world
Is this an adult or child's book? - Kid's book (ages 7-14)

Main Character
Identity: - Female
Profession/status: - student
Age: - a kid
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
Terrain - Water - Mountains - Domed/Underground City
Earth setting: - 20th century

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only) - none/very little science jargon needed
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson
Kabumpo in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson
The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum
Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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