Customer Reviews

Land of Oz

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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I suppose some would consider it sacrilege and those who only know "The Wizard of Oz" the movie wouldn't believe it, but "The Land of Oz," the second book in L. Frank Baum's 14-book series, is clearly superior to "The Wizard of Oz." No Dorothy, no Toto, no Lion: no problem. This book is sensationally entertaining. Whereas the first book seemed more interested in presenting marvelous characters and creatures scene by quick scene (which it does well) than in delighting us with what they say and do, "The Land of Oz" is a tour de force that will keep a smile permanently affixed to your face (like Jack Pumpkinhead!). Baum's style is enormously improved; he supplies more detail, more endearing dialog, more fun, more edge, more sides to everything. The characters and creatures are marvelous: the aforermentioned Jack Pumpkinhead (my favorite), the Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, the gump (two sofas, an antlered animal head, palm leaves and broom brought to life as a flying "thing"), the Saw Horse, the army of girls who take over the Emerald City and make servants of the men (in 1904!), Mombi the witch (far more interesting than the Wicked Witch of the West), and on and on, including more vivid portrayals of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman. Overall, considerably better than the first book, which is good in its own right, and simply one of my favorite books, one which can be loved by adults (as I am) or children. If you read only one Oz book (OK, you have to read the first one, but if you read only two) include "The Land of Oz".

This book is as they call it now "Da Bomb". I think it is the best L. Frank Baum Oz book.It's got plenty of action and suspence while having a sort of merryness. This is the perfect book for oz fans.If you liked the Wizard Of Oz you will end up liking this one better. Enjoy the book!

Another great story from L. Frank Baum at the turn of the 20th century, the second one after "The Wizard of Oz" and more exciting. The Wizard has gone home, Dorothy is presumably with her uncle and aunt in Kansas. A downmarket sorceress, Mombi, with crooked shoes and a long nose, has a young boy named Tip in thrall. He creates a pumpkin-headed man to scare her, but she brings it to life with a newly-acquired Powder of Life. Tired of the kid's tricks, she decides to turn him into a statue, but he makes tracks with the now living, but stupid Jack Pumpkinhead. They meet up with a speedy Sawhorse, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and a highly-magnified, thoroughly educated Wogglebug with an unfortunate tendency to bad puns. This crew tangles with the revolutionary army women of the Emerald City, who have taken over unde the leadership of Comrade General Jinjur. After many a setback, they escape in a Gump (got to read the book to find out what that is), and arrive at the palace of the Good Queen Glinda, whose all-female army (hmm, what IS it with Frank Baum and female armies ??) marches to the Emerald City and puts down the revolt for once and for all. There's a surprise ending, which I won't reveal, except to say that it involves a sex change.
I loved the Oz books growing up and I still do love them, along with the great illustrations by John R. Neill. I can't imagine my childhood without them and when I get tired or fed up with the modern world, I can still sometimes retreat into the past with a good Oz story. If you liked any of the Oz books previously, you'll definitely like this one. It's a perfect fantasy on a rainy day, coming down from a simpler time.

I love every single Wizard of Oz book that is out there. They are such delightful fun-fantasy novels, that are amazingly written by L. Frank Baum. This is such a wonderful sequel to "The Wizard of OZ"...instead of Dorothy we have a boy named Tip, or so we think who escapes the evil clutches of Mombi, after creating "Jack Pumpkinhead." This book has a lot of fun elements of fantasy and magic, it is such a delightful read, and with a really creative plot-twist at the end of the book. In the fact that Tip is actually Princess OZMA, the true ruler of the land of OZ who was put under a spell to be a boy by the Wizard from the Wizard of OZ, and Mombi. Luckily at the end she is turned back into herself, and goes on to rule OZ.

I love seeing the return of the Scarecrow and the Wooden Tinman, and the creation of Jack Pumpkinhead from the "Magic Powder of Life" that Tip aka Princess OZMA takes from Mombi. I also find the creation of the two sofa's put together with the moose's head, and wings, and that is how they get out of the Emerald City castle. A very fun read that will capture the imagination of children and adults, and will make kids realize the joy of reading, just like I have ever since I was a kid. The OZ series is defintely one of my many favorite book series from childhood, and is still today.

Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum is the first sequel to the wizard of oz and yes I agree that it is in many ways superior to the original. Yes we have no Dorothy and no Lion but the story about Tip, the wooden horse, the tin man and the scare crow is absolutely fabolously written and I found myself more enthralled with this story since many ways it is a better written story with more charachter development and a plot that truly creates a page turner and ones does not want to stop reading since the story is stupendous. I love the illustrations and I can not wait to continue the stories about the land of oz.

When I bought The Land of Oz, I opened up a new world of adventure. Little did I know, The Wizard of Oz's author, L. Frank Baum, had written 13 other books after The Wizard of Oz.

The Land of Oz is about a young boy named Tip, who lived with a witch named Mombi. Mombi was a very evil witch and one day she journeyed to an old wizard to get some magical ingredients. While she was gone, Tip constructed a man out of wood and carved a pumpkin and placed it on its head. Then, he set the "pumpkin man" standing out in the street so it would scare old Mombi. When she returned, she wasn't scared but mad at Tip. She decided to try the Powder of Life, an ingredient she had gotten at the wizard's house that would make anything come to life, on the "pumpkin man" to see if it worked. It did and brought the "pumpkin man" to life. Mombi was going to turn Tip into a marble statue in the morning for trying to scare her, so Tip and the newly called Jack Pumpkinhead left to journey to The Emerald City. Jack Pumpkinhead was the first of many new characters to come into the Oz stories.

The reason I would suggest this book is because it is fun. There are adventures and new characters and a surprise close to the end. Also, characters like The Scarecrow, and The Tin Man appear in this book. Dorothy is not in this book because it is kind of a prologue to the next book, Ozma of Oz.

After I finished this book, I realized that I really liked it and would like to read more of the series. As I continued to read the rest of the books, I liked them more and more. As of 7/3/02, I am on Tik-Tok of Oz, which is book 8. As you can see, I'm far in the series and still reading. If you liked The Wizard of Oz, then you will probably like The Land of Oz.

The Land of Oz is..well..WOW. It definately is not just a sappy children's book, it's funny, and truly amusing. Don't call it a child's book, call it a book for all audiences.

The sequel to Wizard is almost as good as the first. Though I didn't like this one as much it was still great to read with terrific characters like the Gump and Jack Pumpkin Head. If you liked the first one try the second. This one follows the further adventures of the Tin Woodman and Scarecrow.

The thing I noticed most about this book is that Baum tries to stick quite a bit of jokes in this one. This is quite a bit of an improvement over the first book, which seems devoid of attempts at humor. Still, I give this a lower rating than the first book because I'm a little freaked out regarding identification issues with Tip, the main character. You have to read the entire book to know what I'm talking about. I think when Baum wrote this issue into the book, he figured nothing like it would ever happen in real life, but less than 50 years later, it did. Weird. The Gump seems to have some identity issues as well which leads me to believe that identity is a big theme of this book. Another example - the scarecrow's whole body is replaced with money after his straw is gone, but he is still the same person because of the content he possesses, that being fake brains. Identity has got to be a theme here.

Still, despite what weird identity issues there may be, the book is a great read. Jack Pumpkinhead and the Woggle Bug are solid new characters that I really like. The Scarecrow and Tin Man are back and are the same as always, except sometimes the Tin Man is called Nick Chopper. I don't understand why he didn't have a name in the first book but now he all of a sudden has a name, but oh well.

I like the Wicked Witch of the West and all, but General Jinjur is the main villain in this one, and I think I might like her better because she's pretty. You won't see characters like her and her army in a book printed in modern times because such characters today would be considered sexist. Let's face it though, sexism was popular back then. Everyone today would tell the author, "Wait, you can't stereotype women as being more suited for housework!" Still, the fact that Baum had such a powerful girl in his work probably did more for the women's liberation movement than against it. I think when this book was written, women's suffrage was a big issue. It sure seems obvious that Baum is addressing some kind of women's issue. Baum seems to be addressing issues more blatantly in this book than he did in his first Oz book.

I thought it was interesting to see the Woggle Bug say, "We can blockade the city and starve it into submission," and Glinda the Good Witch make death threats to the evil Mombi (which looks an awful lot like the word Mom). I think books for kids steer away from these kinds of things now, but I also think these things are important in some kind of way because they show that you've got to be tough on the bad guys sometimes, even though it's a last resort.

Those are just some reflections. The thing you'll get most out of the book if you read it yourself is that it's both funny and fun; a good fairytale. I like the Oz books much better than Harry Potter. I also like Baum's style more than Dahl's (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Baum is an impressive writer. (So once again as you might guess, there are some pretty big words in a kid's book, still nothing like Wind in the Willows though.)