A few months ago I had decided to read L. Frank Baum's lengthy series of short novels about the mythical land of Oz after noticing the complete set on my sister's bookshelf when we visited her and her family back in 2017, but never got around to following up on the first book, naturally called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...from 1900. The written story turned out quite a bit different from the 1939 blockbuster musical movie version starring Judy Garland, but I enjoyed Baum's writing style and it was pretty funny. Then, while recently reading Robert Heinlein's sci-fi novel Podkayne of Mars, I noticed that its protagonist Poddy, a girl in her late teens, was a big Oz fan and made numerous references to different characters in the series. This turned my attention back to Baum and I just finished reading book number two, titled The Marvelous Land of Oz, which he had published in 1904...
In this story there is no sign either of Dorothy or the Wizard of Oz, although at least they were mentioned in passing: no reference at all was made to the Cowardly Lion. Oz is benevolently ruled by Scarecrow while his best friend the Tin Woodman reigns over the land of the Winkies. The story is centered around a boy named Tip who has been placed in the custody of a sinister old sorceress named Mombi. One day, while harvesting pumpkins, he decides to play a prank on her by cutting out a face on a pumpkin and setting it up, complete with a wooden body and arms and legs, to surprise her. Surprised Mombi is, and she decides to prank Tip in return by sprinkling life-enabling magic powder on it. Jack Pumpkinhead, as Tip calls him, is a genial but rather stupid sort...but the sorceress threatens to turn Tip into a statue and use Jack instead to perform her chores. So Tip sneaks out with Jack and escapes, taking with him Mombi's stash of life-powder. They go out in search of the Emerald City where they hope the King, who is Scarecrow, will help him with his situation. Meanwhile, there is an insurrection in Oz as the girls, led by General Jinjur and armed with knitting needles, take over and make the men do all the domestic work. Scarecrow and company escape and seek help from the Tin Woodsman. Meanwhile, Tip has brought a sawhorse to life with the pilfered powder...he ingeniously calls him "Sawhorse"...
No, I'm not going to tell the rest of the story. But with this one I may have found my favorite character: a "woggle-bug"...more specifically H.M. Woggle-Bug, T.E....who after having absorbed the lessons from a school teacher after hiding out in his school, is caught one day and magnified on a screen to the students. A distraction occurs and the enlarged bug wanders off, hence the initials H.M. (highly magnified) and T.E. (thoroughly educated). He reminds me strongly of Milne's Owl character in the Winnie the Pooh series: very pompous and arrogant about his educational level. But the funniest moment may have been when Jack Pumpkinhead first meets Scarecrow and agree in their amiable discussion to get an interpreter...even though they already understand each other! Yes, there's a lot of funny stuff in this book, and unlike with the first one, I wasn't getting myself sidetracked comparing it to the movie...
Since the Oz series is now public domain, you shouldn't have trouble getting it on the Internet. YouTube has available public domain audiobooks...that's what I used this time around...
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