Customer Reviews

The Enchanted Island of Yew

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Blue Unicorn Edition is an incredibly shoddy book-- an InstaBook. It looks like a printout of an unillustrated web page. To top it off, the author's name is given on the cover as "Frank L. Baum," which showed these people had no idea what they were doing, not to mention it's poorly cut and there are blobs of ink all over the book. I'm going to send it back and exchange it for the Wildside edition. I know their books are good quality, since Phyliis Ann Karr showed me hers from them.

The novel is a typical Baum fantasy, that is, carelessly plotted, but filled with wonderful creations (there is more invention in one Baum novel than in a basket of trilogies by any current fantasy writer), and often amusing (the reformation of the thieves is hilarious). As for this particular edition: No one can fault the publisher for being stingy with George O'Connor's illustrations--there are approximately fifty--but that is not necessarily a good thing. O'Connor's work seems crude to me, and he has an annoying tendency to stray from the text--for example, the hero, Prince Marvel, is repeatedly described as "small" and "slight," yet O'Connor consistently depicts someone who could wrestle Superman.

Baum whisks us to another world, with the androgynous and entrancing Prince Marvel, who pines to become mortal. This is one of Baum's "non-Oz" best! Several parts of the book shine with ingenuity, and only from the pen of Baum could this have come to paper. No other author of children's novels writes like this, and no other author can bring to the world such a magical feast like THE ENCHANTED ISLAND OF YEW. A great recommendation for a young one, or for anyone who desires light-hearted, escapist, high fantasy.

Yes, Baum has done it again. This book is a lot different from many of his others, yet maintains his odd magic. The only thing that I didn't like is that the main character is already so powerful that none of the bad guys pose much of a challange to him. But really, any Baum reader will love it.

The book brings you into everyone's perspective, not just the main character's. Every moment you arre wondering how they are going to get past. The main character basically goes to the wickedest people or groups and turns evil into good.

Prince Marvell, the fairy on safari, is unlike any of Baum's other protagonists: a romantic hero, wandering freely through the semi-civilized countryside, looking for good adventure, turning evildoers into good guys. His sidekick, Nerle, is another unique character in Baum; the only one I can think of who's anything like him is Sacho in THE SEA FAIRIES, and they're not VERY similar. Sacho forgives those who hurt him; Nerle actually thanks them.

This book is not without flaws. Like so much of Baum's lower-quality work it suffers from aimlessly-wandering-around syndrome. Oz books are almost all essentially wandering around, but in the better ones like WIZARD it's not aimless and there's more going on as well. This is like DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD and ROAD and most of EMERALD CITY--essentially plotless, a riding tour. Also, the whole Twi adventure is way too long.

Another reviewer criticised the illustrations and the manufacturing quality. The original first edition of YEW had only a few (five?) color plates, plus some early editions had orange line-drawings stamped over the text. I have seen several recent very-badly-illustrated republications of YEW and this may be one. But it's most likely worth it anyway; you'll be glad to have Prince Marvell and Nerle in your family.

While this is indeed a fairy tale, it's tone is much different than the Oz books for which L. Frank Baum is best known. It is a very good children's book.

One gets the impression that this book was written independently of the Oz canon. It is not mentioned anywhere in the Oz books. As a child, my only knowledge of it came from the maps found at the beginning of some of that series. The book was also listed in the other works of Baum. The maps kindled my interest as did the references to it in the "By" columns but I was unable to get a copy for 30 years. It was worth the wait.

The story involves a fairy on the enchanted island of Yew. She is tired of being immortal and the sameness of everything and enlists the aid of some girls to aid her in an adventure. She gets transformed into a "mortal" prince for the space of a year and sets out to explore the island and have a good time. In doing so, he comes across several different kingdoms, each with its own peculiarity, rights some wrongs and has a good time.

Yew seems directed at a slightly older audience than Oz but it is still meant for young people and people young at heart. It was worth waiting for.