The Marvelous Land of Oz

This book is odd. It starts off with an army of girls taking over emerald city with knitting needles so they could have nice jewellery but ends with the most casual, no-big-deal gender transition in literary history. (not sure if a spoiler warning is needed on a 100 year old book but I didn't know it was coming so it was a big surprise to me)

Don't think it quite captures the magic of the first book (which might be my movie bias) but still a fun time. It's definitely kept me interested to read the rest.

My grandson & I just finished the second Oz Book. Although it was enjoyaable it was not as good as the other two we have read. It was, however, good enough to keep my young audience eager for the next tale, which we will begin tomorrow. I simply love reading these to him. They are a happy, if not awkward linguistically, novels.

Reading this you can really tell that Baum was pressured into writing the wizard of Oz sequel. This is nowhere near as good, the characters are poor, they are friends but bicker and fight all the time. In the story there was one really good scene and that's when the Gump crashes into the Hacksaw's nest, you got a glimpse of what the story could have been. The ending and identity of Ozma was really creepy, very odd stuff.

Never mind though, my daughter enjoyed in and it has been nice to move past the first book.