6 stars
First Sentence: There could be no doubt of the fact: Princess Ozma, the lovely girl ruler of the Fairyland of Oz, was lost.
Thoughts: In case you ever wondered what my favorite book in the Oz series is, this is it. It’s a truly delightful story filled with mystery, intrigue, and a truly wicked person.
It begins when Dorothy goes into Ozma’s bedroom one morning. She’s the only person allowed to come in first thing in the morning and the two girls usually have a chat after they get up. This morning, however, Ozma isn’t there. Maybe she went out early? No, she’s not anywhere in the palace. Is she on the grounds? Nope, not their either. Has anyone seen her since last night? Negative. The only person up the night before who might have seen anything was Scraps the Patchwork Girl, but her button eyes fell off and she only had Aunt Em sew them back on this morning.
Then Dorothy and the other girls in the palace, Betsy Bobby and Trot, discover the Magic Picture is missing as well. Something’s rotten in the City of Emerald.
Down south in the Quadling Country, Glinda wakes up to find out that she, too, has been robbed. All her magic tools are gone including her Magic Book that Records Everything That Happens in the World. The Wizard comes by a few hours later and reveals that his magic paraphernalia has also been stolen. Glinda goes back to the Emerald City with the Wizard and calls a meeting. She divides everyone into four groups to search each of the four countries in Oz. The one we follow is the Winkie Search Party, consisting of Dorothy, Toto, the Wizard, the Sawhorse (at least part of the way), Betsy Bobbin, Trot, and Button-Bright.
But first let’s go to the far southeastern corner of the land of the Winkies. There’s a tall tableland there that is part of Oz in geography only. It’s where the Yips live. The same morning that Ozma disappeared, one of the Yips, Cayke the Cookie Cook, discovers that her golden diamond-studded dishpan is gone. She goes to the Frogman, the leader of the Yips, to determine her next steps. Those steps take her and the Frogman down off the tableland and into the wider Winkie country to find the dishpan. After all, none of the Yips had it.
Both parties immediately meet with obstacles. The Emerald City group encounter the Merry-Go-Round Mountains which are nigh impossible to cross. The Yip party discovers that no one off the tableland think the Frogman is as wise as he thinks he is. They offend everyone they meet until the Frogman accidentally swims in the Truth Pond and has to admit he’s not that smart. Things go better for him after that.
Meanwhile the Emerald City group gets past the mountains and find themselves in my favorite part of Oz: The Great Orchard. Every kind of fruit and nut tree grows there, and they’re blossoming and fruiting at the same time like in a tropical country or a fairyland. You’ve got your oranges, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, lemons, limes, apples, pears, pecans, quinces, cherries, plums, and one single solitary peach tree.
I would like to visit this orchard.
Eventually the two search parties meet up and, with the help of the Little Pink Bear, learn the identity of the thief. Now they just have to get him.
The Eclectic Reviewer 