Customer Reviews

Rinkitink in Oz

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Books of Wonder has reprinted the original 1916 edition of Rinkitink in Oz with color dust jacket and cover. This is a truly beautiful book with 12 color plates and nearly 100 black-and-white drawings by John R. Neill, the famous illustrator of almost all the Oz books.

Rinkitink is the fat, lazy, and irresponsible king of the small kingdom of Rinkitink which lies on the shore of Baum's imaginary Nonestic Ocean. He is too lazy to walk any great distance and keeps a surly saddled goat named Bilbil near him always to provide him with transportation. His redeeming qualities are his jovial nature, his great love of life, and his ability to burst into spontaneous laughter or song. The story of the book mainly takes place on islands in the Nonestic Ocean and begins when Rinkitink, tired of the responsibilities of ruling, sneaks away without telling anyone where he is going. He visits Pingaree where Prince Inga is a quiet boy who spends much of his time reading books in a tree.

Pingaree is a rich kingdom and is attacked by marauders soon after Rinkitink arrives. They loot and sack the island taking all the islanders back to their own islands of Regos and Coregos as slaves. Prince Inga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil are overlooked and left stranded on Pingaree. How can a lazy overweight king, a shy boy, and a surly goat rescue the Pingareeans? This is the drama of Rinkitink in Oz.

The characters are among the best developed in any of Baum's work. The plot is tight and exciting. Danger and force are confronted with a charming grace that marks Baum's best works. Also, this is my favorite Oz book to read aloud. Rinkitink's joviality, laughter and songs are great for recitation.

The title of the book may be a bit misleading because Oz is not even mentioned until the last five chapters of this 24 chapter book. According to the Afterword by Peter Glassman, Rinkitink was originally written in 1905, 11 years before it was published. Other commitments and illness prevented Baum from writing a book in 1916. So he took the unpublished Rinkitink and reworked the ending to bring Dorothy and the Wizard, as well as a brief visit to Oz, into the plot. Although this sudden shift is the weakest part of the book, loyal Oz fans will not mind once Ozma throws one of her famous banquets for Rinkitink and Inga. This is also a good book for readers not familiar with the Oz series since it stands on its own more than most of the other books in the series.

An "Oz" book only in that it is a fantasy, the nome king fits in peripherally, and there are some deus-ex-machina intrusions of Oz characters at the end. Actually better than some of the more traditionally "Oz-y" books, the dangerous situations seems more dangerous, the devices a little more like traditional fantasy than the fairy tail world of Oz. Excellent kids fantasy whether they like Oz material or no, and even better for us older kids

I don't know why Amazon's page doesn't mention this, but what Amazon is calling their "Rinkitink in Oz (Hardcover)" is indeed in the "Books of Wonder" series that the other hardbounds are in, all with dust jackets and illustrations by John Neill.

As a child, this book always confused me a bit, mostly because there was so little Oz in it. And, as such, I found it disappointing (I mean this guy gets a book before the Cowardly Lion? Before the Hungry Tiger? Heck, even before Billina?). As an adult, I can look at "Rinkitink in Oz" with a bit more objectivity and see that it is a wonderful fantasy novel, but unfortunately, the thing an Oz fan wants the most of...is Oz! In "Rinkitink," Oz does not come into play until the very end and it all feels a bit contrived, a bit of a "throw-in." Of course, students of Oz will know that this is just the case, for "Rinkitink" was one of those many non-Oz novels that Baum tried to write, but being held hostage by his fans (who were ever demanding more Oz stories), he converted this book for inclusion in the Oz series. As I have said, it is a well-done story, written in the true spirit of fantasy (ah..the three pearls; how I longed to get my hands on them as a child) and there are some wonderful characterizations (the obvious being Rinkitink; but I was always a fan of Bilbil the goat). So, if you're hungry for Oz, you might want to put this one at the bottom of the pile--but, like all works by Baum--it's well worth the read.

Rinkitink in Oz is one of the most extraordinary books in all the world. In which King Rinkitink travels to his neighboring island. His goat can talk. And kind of is a smart aleic.While he visits the island. The king tells his son of the three magnifcent pearls. They are all different colors. Blue for strength, pink for Guarding & white for guidance. The white one will tell him everything he wants to know. The king shows him where he hides the pearls in case of an emergency. The other two islands neighboring them is there enemy. They are mighty, strong & courageous. Those islands capture all of them except Rinkitink, The prince & the goat. Next they go on a quest to free there people. It is quite an amazing story & i rate it 5 stars.

Baum has combined magic, suspense, adventure and pure delight into this wonderful odyssey. It's as fun to read today as it was over forty years ago.

As a child, I read and reread ALL the Oz books written by Baum. Later Oz books by a different author were a poor imitation of the original series. By far my favorite Oz book was - - - and still is: Rinkitink. The story itself, and the delightful characters, is still a pleasure to read. Bilbil the goat is a rude, hilarious animal and adds much humor to the story about brave little Prince Inga and his companion, King Rinkitink, as they set off to rescue Prince Inga's parents. The book deserves 5 stars or more if it were possible to give it more.

I was never really bothered by the missing Oz elements in Rinkitink in Oz. Despite the fact that the majority of the action takes place outside the Impassible Desert, Rinkitink is still a worthy entry in the Oz series. As a child, it was actually one of my favorites-- something about the three pearls, the talking goat, and young Prince Inga really sparked my imagination.

In this book, Prince Inga of Pingaree must work to save his parents and his people from the warlike people of Regos and Coregos. He sets about this task with the help of both three magic pearls and the incorrigible King Rinkitink. When their quest takes them to the Nome kingdom, Dorothy decides that it is time to help him in his efforts...

It is true that it does not have many of the familiar Oz characters, and that when they do appear it has the strong feeling of an afterthought. Still, it is a strong and magical story in its own right, and one worth reading as part of the series. In his introduction, Baum says:

"Indeed, I think you will find this story quite different from the other histories of Oz, but I hope you will not like it the less on that account."

`Rinktink' is a much better book than its predecessor. In this book we first visit Pingaree, an idyllic island which subsists on pearl farming and trade with nearby Gilgad, a mountainous territory bordering on the now-familiar territory of the Nome king. The title character visits the little island and gets caught up in an invasion by a hostile force. Together with his talking goat, Bilbil, he assists the island's Prince on a quest to save the island's citizens and the king and queen from certain harm. This quest takes them first to the invaders' islands and then to the kingdom of the Nome King, where eventual aid from Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz help to reunite the royal family. All the adventurers pay a brief visit to Ozma before returning to their rightful fplaces.

Most of the action in the series is forced outside of Oz now that all of the central characters are impervious to harm when they are in Oz. As the author is no longer forced to developed a contrived adventure in well-worn territory, the story is much cleaner and the literary devices are the most respectable ones used in the series since `Emerald City's pun chapters (e.g. the queens are named for their islands, etc.). This book presents a good story for parents to read to young children over multiple nights.

This was a book that I downloaded to my phone. I got an amazon kindle app for my android for free, and then found this for free! It's awesome to have a book at the go to read when I have some down time :)