Customer Reviews

The Giant Garden of Oz

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This is a book about the time that Dorothy went to visit her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. They finally got their new farm from Ozma, after 70 years. On Dorothy's first night there, the garden grows to gigantic proportions and she has to go find help. It takes a day of traveling and losing both Toto and Billina in the garden for her to get out. She finds a house that had been torn apart, with huge holes in a garden, once filled with giant veggies? She meets a new friend along the way, Imogene the cow, who can give milk, or cream , or skimm milk, or others, depending on her mood. What will happen? Will Dorothy get to the Emerald City in time to save her family? And what will happen to Toto and Billina? And what does a cow have to do with the story line? Find out by reading this terrific book!

Trouble is the last thing Dorothy expects when she visits her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry on their few farm in Oz. But before she knows it, Dorothy is in over her head--literally--when the vegetables in her aunt and uncle's garden grow to gigantic proportions. Dorothy sets out with Toto and Billina to get help from the Emerald City. But things get worse before they get better when Toto and Billina mysteriously disappear. Traveling alone, Dorothy meets friends old and new, including Imogene, a cow who gives the most amazing milk, and the Wizard of Oz, who has taken up an old hobby again. Eric Shanower's 40 striking b/w illustrations are great too. It was great fun both for me (mom) and my kids!

As fans of L. Frank Baum's Oz books know, Dorothy not only returned to Oz but eventually brought her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em back to live there. Now they have a little farm miles from the Emerald City, but one night when Dorothy stops to visit the farm isn't little anymore -- overnight everything growing in the garden grows to immense size. With an also growing Henry and Em trapped in their home Dorothy has to find her way through the giant garden for help, but things get even worse when the unfriendly cause of this calamity appears.

Shanower's illustrations are amazing, although some readers might be disturbed at the idea of Dorothy dressing herself in bed sheets after she grows out of her clothes. Sadly, his writing is a bit more mundane. It's a great idea that introduces some fun new characters, but stylistically the writing is weak. Just the same, it's fun seeing our old friends from Oz in a new adventure.