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Read The Marvelous Land Of Oz (1985)

The Marvelous Land of Oz (1985)

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Rating
3.82 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0140350411 (ISBN13: 9780140350418)
Language
English
Publisher
puffin classics

The Marvelous Land Of Oz (1985) - Plot & Excerpts

Don't read further if you haven't read to the end of book #1 since this review will spoil you about the events that took place in book #1. This book was awesome. I have to say that after book #1 I was puzzled what this book would be about and if I would like it as much as book #1 without Dorothy or the Cowardly Lion absent from the story. However, this book I managed to even love more than book #1.We start off with the main protagonist Tip who carves himself a man made of wood with a head of a pumpkin in order to frighten his guardian, the witch Mombi. Mombi soon deduces what Tip has done and using a bit of powder she haggled over brings the pumpkinhead to life and promises swift retribution to Tip by telling him she will turn him into a marble statue (harshest punishment ever).Tip escapes and takes his 'son' Jack Pumpkinhead with him.Using some of the powder, Tip promptly brings a sawhorse to life and calls it Saw-Horse. I have to say that out of all of the characters I loved Saw-Horse. He got salty with everyone. And kept telling Jack how stupid he was. Bless his heart, Jack Pumpkinhead is not that smart. Part of me wishes that Dorothy had been along on this journey since I would have liked to see Saw-Horse tell her off too. Eventually our trio gets to Emerald City and finds King Scarecrow who despite being the most wise ruler ever is actually still pretty dumb. There is a scene between Scarecrow and Pumpkinhead involving an interpreter that had me cracking up. I literally said out loud "How are they not realizing they are answering each other's questions and they don't need an interpreter?" The peaceful reign of Scarecrow's rule comes to an end though due to an army of 400 women/girls that march on Emerald City demanding to be set free from cooking and cleaning for men. There General is Jinjur. Too bad the women want to also take Emerald city to take possession of the jewels to make bracelets and sell them for gowns. Because women just love sparkly things (eyeroll).Still you must surrender! exclaimed the General, fiercely. We are revolting!You don't look it, said the Guardian, gazing from one to another, admiringly. But we are! cried Jinjur, stamping her foot, impatiently; and we mean to conquer the Emerald City.Good gracious! returned the surprised Guardian of the Gates; what a nonsensical idea!Go home to your mothers, my good girls, and milk the cows, and bake the bread. Don't you know it's a dangerous thing to conquer a city?I wish at this moment that Jinjur had been replaced by Peggy Carter so she would have kicked his butt all over Emerald City.I quickly cheered though when the women took Emerald City and the Scarecrow flees to his friend, Emperor Tin Woodman who is ruling over the Quadlings. Eventually we have everyone meeting up again and deciding that their quest is to remove Jinjur from the throne and put the Scarecrow back in his rightful place. Things do not go according to plan though. We meet even more characters and get an appearance by two characters from the last book, the Queen of the Mice and Glinda the good (or as I started calling her Glinda who is a worse witch than even Katrina on Sleepy Hollow. I have to say that Scarecrow was a jerk throughout this whole story and the Tin Woodman was pretty vain. I wonder how Dorothy would feel meeting up with this duo again and seeing how changed they became. Also they seem to have short term memories since they both got prissy with anyone who mentioned the Wizard of Oz being less than what he was. You would think that one of them being so smart may have realized that the Wizard pulled one over on them as well. Ah well, maybe in the next book. My favorite character was honestly the Saw-Horse with Tip a close second. Jack Pumpkinhead kept whining about his head and spoiling and I wish someone had turned him into a pie (man being sick has brought out an I am not in the mood attitude today). The characters felt very real to me and I loved each one of them to pieces and had to crack up by how our merry group started working each other's nerves. I thought that was quite realistic since I probably would have peaced out a while ago and went somewhere to hang out with the China people. Additionally, I thought that this book flowed much better than book #1. Probably because L. Frank Baum knew how he was going to end it, the trick was getting from point A to point B. The ending took me totally by surprised and I loved every minute of it. It's nice to not be spoiled by a book's ending and I was thrilled to not even guess at it. The ending makes perfect sense too and it also goes to show that the Wizard of Oz was more of a humbug than previously thought in book #1. If he ever shows up in Oz again, I hope that Glinda and crew kicks his butt. As much as I want to start reading book #3 right now I am going to wait to start when I get two other books from my pile done.

Few fantasy lands have captured our hearts and imaginations as has the marvelous land of Oz. For over four generations, children and adults alike have reveled in the magical adventures of its beloved folk. Now, for the first time in over seventy years, the second book about Oz is presented here in the same deluxe format as the rare first edition, complete with all 16 of the original John R. Neill color plates, its colorful pictorial binding, and the many black-and-white illustrations that bring it to joyous life. First issued in 1904, L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz is the story of the wonderful adventures of the young boy named Tip as he travels throughout the many lands of Oz. Here he meets with our old friends the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, as well as some new friends like Jack Pumpkinhead, the Wooden Sawhorse, the Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, and the amazing Gump. How they thwart the wicked plans of the evil witch Mombi and overcome the rebellion of General Jinjur and her army of young women is a tale as exciting and endearing today as it was when first published over eighty years ago. Afterword by Peter Glassman. A facsimile of the rare first edition, complete with all 16 original color plates, a colorful pictorial binding, and over 125 of Neill's drawings. A Books of Wonder(R) Classic. About the Author L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900 and received enormous, immediate success. Baum went on to write seventeen additional novels in the Oz series. Today, he is considered the father of the American fairy tale. His stories inspired the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz, one of the most widely viewed movies of all time. Michael Sieben is a professional designer and illustrator, primarily within the sub-culture of skateboarding, whose work has been exhibited and reviewed worldwide as well as featured in numerous illustration anthologies. He is a staff writer and illustrator for Thrasher magazine, and a weekly columnist for VICE.com. He is also a founding member of Okay Mountain Gallery and Collective in Austin, Texas, as well as the cofounder of Roger Skateboards. The author of There's Nothing Wrong with You (Hopefully), he lives and works in Austin.

What do You think about The Marvelous Land Of Oz (1985)?

I liked this book. In this sequel to THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, the boy Tip, who has been living with an old witch for all his life, goes on a journey to the Edmerald City to escape the cruel woman's turning him into a statue. With him goes Pumpkinhead, a doll of Tip's creation brought to life by the which, and saw-horse, a saw-horse brought to life by the witch's potion stolen by Tip. They meet the scarecrow and the tinman on their journey...the main plot, however, involves an army of young girls who are sick of men running things and wish to take the land of Oz to run it the way they feel fit. Other reviews say the book is pro-feminist or really crazy. I don't consider it feminist. WHERE did that one come from? The feminists are the BAD GUYS for crying out loud! Besides the way the feminists want to run things is just to make the little boys laugh. Remember, this book was supposed to stir two things in young people: a love of a creative story and a sense of humor. This book isn't meant to be serious or intellectually edifying. It was written to make young people love reading. In my opinion, this is a better adventure book than a lot of the junk written these days.
—Tyler

This book is slightly ridiculous. It’s hard to evaluate The Marvelous Land of Oz for what it is - a children’s book and a sequel (a sequel to a great example of the genre at that) rather than just a book. But it’s a goofy, daffy book. It’s weirdly pro-women (in a way) for 1904 - everyone who makes anything happen is a woman (Jinjur, Mombi, Glinda) and the men all kind of fall into good luck and the fruits of the women’s labor. At the same time, the women who aren’t named Glinda are consistently terrible people. For example, Mombi’s just evil for evil’s sake - well, she really wants to be a witch and isn’t allowed so she’s full of misdirected, crotchety old lady anger. Jinjur’s army of girls (armed with knitting needles, see, because they’re girls) wants to storm the Emerald City so they can steal the emeralds and other gems to make jewelry (not to finance other wars or anything, but to make pretty jewelry, see, because they’re girls). Amusingly, Jinjur’s girls were actually rebelling because they wanted a little more out of their futures than to cook and clean for husbands - Betty Friedan would be proud.In this, the second book in the Oz series, The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and Glinda return for the festivities with a random assortment of friends, enemies, and obstacles. Their adventures are interesting if silly and laden with puns (my god the puns, some make you giggle, some make you want to rip your eyes out). The end though, is great, especially in the gender-swapping tolerance and the surprisingly just outcome of who gets to rule Oz.
—Cecilia

As a little girl I did a lot of reading. As a grown woman I still do a lot of reading, but without the sense of strident purpose that would envelop me whenever I was able to return from the library with stacks of books piled high in my arms. These days I read for the same reason most people keep breathing, because it simply would just never occur to them to do otherwise, but when I was a kid I read with the desperate urgency of a drowning sailor trying to reach a lifeboat. Getting to the end of the page, chapter, or book was a matter of life or death for young Chloe.One of the very first series I fell in love with, L. Frank Baum’s Oz books have been a touchstone for me nearly as long as I can remember. I loved reading of Dorothy’s adventures with her madcap cast of companions and watched the film so many times that the tape grew thin and stretched in places. Once I learned that there were sequels to The Wizard of Oz I devoured them with the rapacious hunger of one just released from long term confinement. There are 14 total books in the Oz canon, but the one I’ve always had the biggest love for was the sequel, published in 1904, called The Marvelous Land of Oz.Within its pages we are treated to the adventures of the young boy Tip, there’s no Dorothy in this followup (though she reappears in a few of the later books), who is forced to go on the run from his guardian, the evil witch Mombi, who was planning on turning him into a marble statue. His companions in flight are the noble Jack Pumpkinhead, a creature brought to life by Mombi’s magics, and the Saw Horse, who comes to life after Tip spills a potion on him. Fleeing Mombi, the trio runs for the Emerald City where they find an Oz ruled over by our familiar friend, the Scarecrow. There are grumblings of discontent from among the women of Oz, though, who are tired of being ruled by one man after another. From these grumblings a rebellion grows when General Jinjur leads an army of knitting needle-armed women to sac the Emerald City of its namesake jewels and leave the drudgery of housework to the hapless menfolk. Tip and his companions must embark on a quest to restore the Scarecrow to power, a quest that will inevitably lead to Tip finding out some very interesting news pertaining to both him and the future of Oz.I pause here to note that spoilers are ahead and should you be wanting to read this book and be surprised you should just stop reading. Spoiler warnings for books that have been in print for over a century may seem unnecessary, but it’s a courtesy I like to extend to readers. Regardless, if you’re still reading, Glinda the Good Witch of the North eventually encounters Tip and reveals that he’s been trapped under an illusion that Mombi had cast for years and that he is, in fact, the rightful ruler of Oz, Ozma. The spell is removed and Ozma retakes her throne, keeping the grateful Scarecrow on as a loyal advisor.Yes. You read that right. The rightful ruler of Oz is a princess trapped in a boy’s body. When younger Chloe read that my imagination was ensnared. Maybe I’m trapped under a spell, I’d daydream, and all I need to do is find Glinda and I could return to normal. From one of the most innocent of sources I had found a role model and touchstone. I would read a lot more books over the years and relate to a lot of different aspects of characters, but Ozma was the first character I can remember who presented an alternative way of understanding gender and the first I can think of who lit the fire under the idea that I didn’t have to be stuck as Tip forever. For that she will always be my favorite trans heroine.
—Chloe

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