Customer Reviews

Queen Zixi of Ix Or The Story of the Magic Cloak

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This was one of my favorite books as a child - I used to listen to the record (read by Ray Bolger) over and over again. L. Frank Baum out does himself in this one. It is every bit as good as all of the Wizard of Oz books he also penned. Truly magnificent! Read this one to your kids (or just to yourself)!

This is one of those books that you remember reading in front of a fire, and for little girl you probably envisionsed actually slipping on the coat made by fairies. I read this about 20 years ago and I can still summon up the feelings I got reading it, just by hearing, "Queen Xixi." I noticed this book by chance and decided I needed to re-own it. Please read this to you child, even if he happens to be a boy. All of us love fairies, we just haven't seen one, but this book allows us to.

Baum presents a high fantasy, set in the rival kingdoms of Ix and Noland. Central to the story is a magic cloak woven by fairies, and the mishaps and adventures that various people experience due to the cloak's existence. Baum, as it is known, is a genius when it comes to story-telling, and his non-stop inventiveness and cleverness has no doubt placed him among the pantheon of children's authors throughout history. This book is highly recommended, not only for children, but for everyone because of its sheer brilliance.

Hello, my name is Jill, and I am 10 years old. As a child, I think this book was great. Hey all of you adults out there, if you're planning to buy a book for your child, this one is it! It is about a girl named Fluff and a boy named Bud. Since their father died they lived with their Aunt Rivette in the country. One day, they traveled to the Kingdom of Nole, and when entering the East Gate, Bud becomes King and Fluff princess. Why, you may ask, does he become king? Well, the old king had died, and according to the law of the land of Nole, the 47th person to enter the east gate would become the king, and all relations to live in the palace. Anyway, Fluff is given a cloak by a fairy, in which you can wish for 1 thing, and soon the cloak gets passed around the royal palace. Meanwhile, in the land of Ix, the witch-queen hears about this cloak, and decides to steal it. She tries many attemps, and finally obtains it. But the cloak does not work if it is stolen, so she leaves it in the forest. Then creatures called Roly-Rouges invade the kingdom of Nole, so Aunt Rivette, Fluff and Bud run to the kingdom of Ix, and the queen gladly helps them. When they go to the forest to look for the cloak, it is not there! Can they find it in time? Read and find out!

This is a very good book. It is about two young children with no mother and then their father dies and they are very poor. They are forced to live with their aunt. (She is very mean and she doesn't care about anything but money.) Once the king of Noland died they decided for Bud to be the new king. It is really about their adventures with Bud being king. At the same time a magic cloak is going around and nobody knows that it is magical. People keep on accidentally making wishes and they don't know it until later when their wishes come true. Once they notice that it is magical everybody wants it. Soon there is a war against queen Zixi of Ix for the cloak.
This book is cool in very weird ways. It is also one of the books in the series of the Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. I like this book because the plot is fiction and I have read and liked most of the books that this author has written. I think that he is a very good author. He is very creative and I like that and how he uses his creativity to write his books.
I strongly recommend this book to whoever has it. I don't really think it belongs in a specific age group. I think that every body could read it and understand what is going in the book. I also think that whoever reads this book will really like this book.

Queen Zixi of Ix is far and away my favorite non-Oz Baum book, and actually is high on the list for my favorite Baum books in general. In the interesting and informative introduction to the Dover edition, Martin Gardner cites Baum himself (from a letter to his son) about the book.

Baum wrote: "In some ways Queen Zixi is my best effort, and nearer to the 'old-fashioned' fairy tale than anything I have yet accomplished."

In fact, one of the reasons that this book has stayed with me so strongly over the years (I have been re-reading it on and off since I was eight) is that pure fairy tale quality. The issues between Ix and Noland have less of the sly contemporary humor that Baum used in the Oz books. He instead revisits the classical fairy tale characters of the ruling innocents (Bud and Fluff), the tragic "evil" queen (Zixi), and the wicked step-parent (Aunt Rivette). What makes Queen Zixi so wonderful is that while the archetypes are recognizable in the characters, they are also vibrant and real people in their own right. The tension and the flow of the story relies on the fact that these characters are much more than their fairy tale ancestors.

I find that the Richardson illustrations work well with the book (it was the only Baum book that he illustrated). His style is memorable and works well with the text.

Expect the always reliable Baum humor and wordplay. Expect to be engaged and amused and moved.

Recommended for readers of any age.

L. Frank Baum is best known for THE WIZARD OF OZ and the sequels he wrote to that series. All of them are good but, of course, some are better than others. He wrote other stories as well and most of them take place in the same general locale as the Oz stories. The kingdoms and personages may vary but the "feel" remains the same. This book is one such.

This is an original fairy tale and has many of the familiar aspects of the classical genre. It is fun and well written and is as fully deserving of respect as the OZ books. Some say it was Baum's best work; Baum himself certainly ranked it among his best. I had heard of this book when I was a child in love with all things Oz but it was out of print at that time. Thankfully, it is available now.

The story centers around a magic cloak created by a fairy queen. The possessor of the cloak will be granted one wish. Many of those wishes turn out to be foolish or wasteful. The cloak is originally given to a young orphan girl, Fluff. Her brother is soon proclaimed King of Noland and turns out to be an enlightened ruler, even if he is full of the follies of youth. The cloak provokes jealousies, however, and Noland soon finds itself at war with Ix and ultimately conquered by a bunch of strange beings foreign to both Noland and Ix. The cloak turns out to be a source of trouble as well as a blessing.

I first read Queen Zixi of Ix when I was in fourth grade. I loved it then and got really into it. The story concerns a magic cloak that grants wishes (one wish only per person). For entertainment fairies weave the magic cloak and release it to the people of Noland. The recipient is a little girl, Fluff. Through absurd circumstances her brother, Bud is crowned king of Noland.

Ironically only one person in the story ends up intentionally making a wish on the cloak. The others either forget that they are wearing the cloak or don't know about the cloak's magic properties, and so are granted the first wish that they state as they absently talk to themselves. Because the cloak takes things literally this leads to some absurd consequences as people is Bud's palace find their idle wishes come true.

Queen Zixi in the neighboring land of Ix has heard about the cloak. She decides to steal it and after a few tries succeeds. However the wish will not be granted if the cloak has been stolen. Queen Zixi doesn't get her wish and discards the cloak without knowing why.

Meanwhile Bud's country of Noland is invaded by very round rude people called Roly-Rouges. He and Fluff don't have the cloak to help them and appeal to Zixi for help. She took the cloak while in disguise and switched it for a fake so the kids don't know that the cloak is missing. They only know that it won't work. The rest of the book follows Zixi helping the children as they hunt down the cloak and deal with the Roly-Rouges. Naturally this happens in unexpected ways.

As an adult rereading this book I still liked it, but the pacing felt kind of funny. This is a fairly short book and lots happens (more than I can summarize here). When I read this as a child the pacing felt perfect so I probably read faster now. There are still little jokes included here for adults, though. At one point a character muses that this would be the way things work "in a fairytale, but not here in the real world of Noland". So there are little jokes and ways in which things are worded that adults will get but children will likely overlook as they think about fairies, wishes and magic. This book is written more for children, but if you read it as an adult or if you read it aloud to kids there is something for you too.

If you have younger children then this book is definitely a good choice for them. I remember it well from my childhood and I loved it. For a child it is a must read. For an adult it is a quick entertaining read.

My kids loved this book and had me read it to them 6 times! Yours will too!

The characters are very uninteresting and the story is dull and longwinded. I guess the appeal is imagining for yourself what it would be like to have a magical cloak or to laugh at what happens when people get their wishes granted. I thought the book was flat.