Title: Tik-Tok of Oz
Author: L Frank Baum
Pages: 271
Finished: August 29, 2017
First Sentence: "I won't!" cried Ann; "I won't sweep the floor."
Summary: Queen Ann of Oogaboo decides to raise an army and take over Oz, but when Glinda the Good finds out about this, the sorceress works some magic so the Oogaboo army ends up somewhere else. Meanwhile, Betsy Bobbin and her mule Hank find themselves shipwrecked in the land of the Rose Kingdom where they meet the Shaggyman and the Rose Princess. Also, Polychrome dances on the ground for too long during her father's visit to the land and finds herself stranded on the ground. When they all finally meet, up, they decide to save the Shaggyman's brother from the Nome King.
Thoughts: I remember this book. This is the one where the Shaggyman forgets he ever met POlychrome before! Right. The edition I read had an editor's note in here discussing how Baum wanted to write a play based off Ozma of Oz, but because he sold the rights to his characters to movie studios, he couldn't use them. Thus he made new characters for that play and called it TikTok of Oz. Betsy Bobbin was written as a stand in for Dorothy, and Queen Ann was originally written as a stand in for Ozma. When his fans wrote in for more Oz books, they asked for some of those characters to show up, and thus this story was born.
This does explain some of the massive continuity issues such as Shaggyman forgetting he ever met Polychrome when they traveled together in The Road to Oz (though I feel that should have been found and ironed out). However, some of his rules are still inconsistent. Obviously Betsy Bobbin and Hank were in Fairyland the minute they ended up in the Rose Kingdom, but Hank couldn't speak. Contrast that to Billina, Eureka, and Jim the Horse from their respective books. Even more obnoxious, Baum even goes so far as to explain that Toto actually can talk but refuses to!
Also, how does one pronounce Tititi-Hoochoo's name?
I feel like Guph was different than he was before. Of course, that could be explained by the forgetfulness that happened in one of the previous books, but Ruggedo (formerly Roquat) seemed just as nasty as he had been before.
I have six books left in this challenge. One a month isn't too bad, but they are definitely getting more and more difficult to read.
Read for The Wizard of Oz Read Along.
This does explain some of the massive continuity issues such as Shaggyman forgetting he ever met Polychrome when they traveled together in The Road to Oz (though I feel that should have been found and ironed out). However, some of his rules are still inconsistent. Obviously Betsy Bobbin and Hank were in Fairyland the minute they ended up in the Rose Kingdom, but Hank couldn't speak. Contrast that to Billina, Eureka, and Jim the Horse from their respective books. Even more obnoxious, Baum even goes so far as to explain that Toto actually can talk but refuses to!
Also, how does one pronounce Tititi-Hoochoo's name?
I feel like Guph was different than he was before. Of course, that could be explained by the forgetfulness that happened in one of the previous books, but Ruggedo (formerly Roquat) seemed just as nasty as he had been before.
I have six books left in this challenge. One a month isn't too bad, but they are definitely getting more and more difficult to read.
Read for The Wizard of Oz Read Along.
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