Welcome to Litsy!

And the final volume in this amazing collection has the Skeezers castle which was magically submerged to the bottom of the lake in the second story in this book. This contains the last stories which are: The Magic Of Oz, Glinda Of Oz & finally, The Royal Book Of Oz. I can‘t wait to dive back into these stories with my granddaughter! #wehearheisawizofawiz #ifeverawiztherewas #taketheozexperienceyourself

Reports of the demise of my #OzReread have been greatly exaggerated! I‘ve got this book of some Oz-based short stories and I‘m going to be reading them between novels.

In 2014 when we were expecting our first son I decided I wanted to revisit the Oz books which I had loved as much as Narnia and Middle-earth as a kid.

I was surprised at how many scenes and characters I remembered but what used to be exciting adventures to 2nd-3rd grade me were now just goofy low-stakes fun.

I love Oz now for it‘s make-it-up-as-you-go weirdness, although this style made for some lousy endings. Deus ex Dorothy indeed.

This was Baum‘s final Oz book, published posthumously, and though the Oz adventures continued I‘ve decided to end my #OzReread here.

I‘m honestly not sure if I read this one as a kid. I remember the island with the glass dome & that‘s it. It was solid. Ozma & Dorothy end up in trouble when they head off to a forgotten corner of Oz to stop a war between the Flatheads & the Skeezers. Glinda & the rest of the regulars have to bail them out.

Here Glinda provides an extremely accurate description of the story thus far.

Don‘t ever stop being weird, Oz.

#OzReread

The final Oz book by Baum was published posthumously, and it is preceded by a note explaining to his legions of kid fans that

“In May, nineteen hundred nineteen, he went away to take his stories to the little child-souls who had lived here too long ago to read the Oz stories for themselves.”

While I do not envy the publishers this job, essentially saying he is now sharing Oz with everyone that died before 1900 gives me the heebie jeebies.

In this next to last book in my #OzReread we have two plots going on that happen while characters are out finding birthday gifts for Ozma.

Dorothy and the Wizard end up foiling a scheme by the wily Nome King (the only reoccurring villain in the series) completely by accident, which is how most problems get solved in Oz.

Meanwhile Trot and Cap‘n Bill get trapped on a magic island and Dorothy ends up actually using her wits to save them.

Like I get that the Very Hungry Tiger of Oz‘s whole bit is that he is always hungry but is too nice to eat anybody, but I find his specificity here... troubling.

To say the least.

#FatBabies #OzReread

Sass is in short supply in Oz, but the see-through glass cat can bring it when necessary. #OzReread

After reading 45 pages of this I have just realized to my gut-churning horror that I should have started The Magic of Oz instead of this one. I jumped the queue! Easily set right, I suppose, especially in the continuity-light land of Oz, but still I HATE reading things out of order. Going to get Book 13 out of my closet this second.