If you like Baum's series of the Wizard of Oz you love this one. After Baum finally put the 14 or 15 book series of Oz to bed he started another series and produced a new Dorothy and this time without limiting to Oz. This was actually uses two characters from the Oz series. They get to this strange land (island in the sky) with a magic umbrella and then the rest of the book is full of adventures and attempts to return home after the umbrella is taken from them. It is presented in typical Baum fashion but his syle seems freer and it is easier to follow and relate to. This is the second of this series but I have not read the first one yet.
Yes! I'm sure my fascination with the books stemmed from all the extravagent descriptions of the clothes and rooms and how pretty everybody was. And also everything was made of jewels or encrusted with jewels. God, it's lucky these books didn't make me grow up to be the world's biggest gold-digger. (Also all the books can be read online for free. (But w/out illustrations. Boo!) Which is a dangeruous time waster.