Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Title: Ozma of Oz

Author: L. Frank Baum

Pages: 272

Finished: 3/28/17

First Sentence: The wind blew hard and joggled the water of the ocean, sending ripples across its surface.

Summary: While on a trip to Australia with her Uncle Henry, Dorothy gets blown overboard in a storm. She floats to shore in a chicken coop along with a hen named Bill (soon to be named Billina) where she starts a new adventure. They disembark in the Land of Ev, a place populated by the "terrible"Wheelers, a mechanical man named TikTok, and the beautiful Princess Langwidere who wishes her Aunt and her 10 cousins would come back so she won't have to rule anymore. Soon, Ozma of Oz, comes across the deadly desert with some of our familiar friends to take on the challenge of freeing the rulers of Ev from the Nome King.

Thoughts: This is my favorite Oz book. I love the story. All of it. I remember the trees with Lunch and Dinner pails absolutely fascinating me as a kid. Princess Langwidere with her numerous heads was another particular fascination. And I wanted to hear all about the palace of knick knacks and bric-a-brac. Some things that bugged me: Dorothy's sudden proclivity to speak in contractions. First book, this didn't happen. Here? She's dropping vowels left and right, and we're meant to see it all in contractions. Annoying. Other continuity issues: Scarecrow is back to being stuffed with straw even though they made a big deal of him being stuffed with money in the last book. Also, Dorothy's account of how the Tin Man became the Tin Man differs from the story he originally told. She mentions he became the tin man a little at a time (by finger and ear and neck) on account of him being careless with his axe. In the first book, he tells the story that his bethrothed's mother asked the Wicked Witch of the East to bewitch his axe and it took off his arms, his legs, his trunk, and his head. AND, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man were so against puns in the previous book, but both make plenty of puns in this one.