The Royal Book of Oz
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The Royal Book of Oz (1921) is the fifteenth Oz book in the Famous Forty, and the first to be written by Ruth Plumly Thompson after L. Frank Baum's death. Although Baum was credited as the author, it was written entirely by Thompson.
Plot
The Scarecrow is upset when Professor Woggle-bug tells him that he has no family, so he goes to where Dorothy Gale found him to trace his 'roots'. Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion search for him, eventually meeting with a knight, Sir Hokus, the Doubtful Dromedary and the Comfortable Camel. Although Thompson has a different style of writing which comes as a bit of a shock, it is a fantastic first effort on her part.In this novel the Scarecrow discovers that, in a previous incarnation, he was human! To be precise, the Scarecrow was the King of the Silver Islands, a quasi-Chinese kingdom located underground beneath the Munchkin region of Oz. When Dorothy first discovered the Scarecrow (in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) he was hanging from a scarecrow-pole in a cornfield; it now develops that this pole descended deep underground to the Silver Islands, where it penetrated the king's grave.
After spending some time in his former kingdom among the Silver Islanders, the Scarecrow decides to return to Oz and continue his current existence. The Royal Book of Oz is a somewhat troubling installment in the Oz canon, as it treats reincarnation as a genuine phenomenon, and also acknowledges that an Oz character can die.
External link
- ["Bookish Math: Statistical tests are unraveling knotty literary mysteries"], Science News, Dec. 20, 2003; Vol. 164, No. 25/26 , p. 392.
| The Oz books | ||
| Previous book: Glinda of Oz | The Royal Book of Oz 1921 | Next book: Kabumpo in Oz |
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