Customer Reviews

Sky Island

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

 

 

Being a L.Frank Baum fan, I loved Sky Island. It is a enchanting book with the main characters as a charming little girl named Trot and a kind sailor-by name Capn' Bill. I loved this adventuras book, which involes a magic umbrella and a exciting run-in with some blularoos. I wont give the book away, but if your are thinking about giving this book to a child- (being 14 myself) I still love reading it, and its definetly worth the money and time.

Much as I love the Oz books (and I have all 14), THIS is my favorite Baum book. Sky Island is the continued adventures of Trot and Cap'n Bill (meet them in "The Sea Fairies", also fun) and Button Bright as they face the mighty Boolooroo of the Blues and the beautiful Queen Tourmaline of the Pinkies, Sky Island's two countries and two races. A wonderful tale, which in the process shows us how to get along with those who are different from ourselves.

I was a bit disappointed with the SEA FAIRIES, Baum's first book to introduce the characters of Trot and Cap'n Bill. It was adequate but not up to the superlative quality I expect from L. Frank Baum. This book, however, sets things to right. It reads more like the Oz books and even includes characters such as Button Bright and Polychrome who make numerous appearances in the Oz series. It is a fun book that I enjoyed even with my youth far behind me.

In this story, Trot meets Button Bright who has a magical umbrella which takes him where he wants to go. Trot, Button Bright and Cap'n Bill decide to use the umbrella to take them for a picnic out on an island just off the coast. Instead of being taken to that island, however, they wind up on and island in the sky inhabited by tow warring peoples. Our characters wind up in the middle and have to set everyone straight.

It is a delightful tale which should appeal to both boys and girls.

This fairy book has some wise philosophy about xenophobia and cruel leadership, but the charm is thin. Baum wrote it during the hiatus when he hoped he'd written his last Oz book. Fortunately, public demand defeated him.

Probably my fault, but I understood that this edition included illustrations from the original publication, which are wonderful. When the book arrived, of course, I found there were none.

If you purchase this edition, be aware.

Why at all publish a book such as this one and take out the original illustrations? It just doesn't make any sense. I understand that (the publisher) Dover has reissued this book in a closer to its original form, with illustrations. It puzzles me that Amazon only carries this non-illustrated version instead of the Dover edition.

L. Frank Baum is best known for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Dover Large Print Classics) and its long string of sequels, but he also wrote numerous other excursions into what he and some of his characters called "fairy countries"--all of which have, happily, been returned to print by Dover in sturdy, affordable paperbacks. After turning out half a dozen Oz volumes, he wrote this book and its prequel, which might be called "The Adventures of Trot & Cap'n Bill," and which in this instance are linked to the Oz Universe. Trot, born Marye Griffith, lives on the California coast with her mother and their boarder, the one-legged seaman known as Cap'n Bill, while her father, a ship's captain, is off sailing the oceans. She and the Cap'n are great friends (he calls her "mate"), and have already had one magical adventure, chronicled in The Sea Fairies, when Trot, on her way back from an errand to the nearby village, encounters a little boy from Philadelphia, who calls himself Button-Bright, and who has ended up in her neighborhood by way of a magical umbrella he accidentally found in his attic. Fascinated by the prospect of flying through the air, Trot persuades Button-Bright (who was introduced in The Road to Oz) to take her somewhere by "the umbrel," and Cap'n Bill contrives a sort of swing-seat to hang underneath it so they can both ride it. Their first ride is everything Trot hoped, and now she's hooked. Cap'n Bill insists on coming along next time, and it may be a good thing he does: in trying to fly to what he and Trot call "Sky Island" (a barely-visible landmass they've always wanted to visit), the trio end up in the Laputa-like floating island of the title, which is inhabited by two rival peoples, the Blueskins and the Pinkies. Falling afoul of the tyrannical Boolooroo of the former, the travellers temporarily lose their umbrella and are forced to flee to the Pinkie country, where they are welcomed and Trot is eventually elected Queen. How she uses this to her advantage to get the umbrella back and bring peace and harmony to Sky Island is the meat of the story.

Trot is a character who will be liked by any reader fond of Dorothy Gale (indeed, many of Baum's "little correspondents"--he received bushels of letters from his young readers--said they liked her "almost as well"): she's brave, resourceful, and (unlike many girls of 1912) not at all given to scatterbrained-ness or fainting. Button-Bright seems to have gotten more competent since his first appearance, and Cap'n Bill is a delightful old salt who will have young readers wishing they knew someone like him. And, happily, Dover has reprinted the book in its original typeface and with all the original, ornate John R. Neill illustrations intact (Neill's rendition of the Blueskins is even more elaborate than the written description of them). Any child who enjoys imaginative literature should be familiar with Baum, and this little-known duology shouldn't be missed.

As one of my favorite childhood stories, I have read this several times - even as an adult. Wouldn't we all like to have the adventure of visiting this wonderous island. I recently finished reading The Sea Fairies and Sky Island to my 8 year old daughter. She loved them but was saddened that there are no more adventures for Trot and Cap'n Bill.

Do yourself a favor and read this book.

A fast-moving, well-woven plot, a loving trio of resourceful protagonists, and one (actually seven) of the most fun-to-hate villians in Baum. For spite, impulsive violence, and cruelty elevated to a creative art, the Wicked Witch of the West and even the Nome King have nothing on the principle villian of SKY ISLAND. On Sky Island, as in Oz, no one dies or suffers pain, even those who get cut to pieces. The Boolooroo of the Blues exploits this so barbarically that the reader is tempted to wish he could simply kill his victims instead. The dramatic climax (involving a goat) is difficult to read without cheering out loud. Baum's special blend of tension and humor in this non-Oz book rivals the best Oz books.

Readers of my reviews know that I like to note Baum's references to Wagner. Polychrome is an obvious derivative of Brunhilde. Polychrome's father is the Rainbow; Brunhilde's is the god of storms as well as of war. Just as Brunhilde favors the hero Siegmund, so Polychrome favors our hero Button-Bright, and her assistance is more useful to BB than Brunhilde's is to Siegmund! She persuades the Pinkies to let the protagonists live, using a singularly Wagnarian argument:

"Why have you decreed death to these innocent strangers?" she asked.

"They do not harmonize with our color scheme," replied Tourmaline.

"That is utter nonsense," declared Polychrome, impatiently. "You're so dreadfully pink here that your color, which in itself is beautiful, has become tame and insipid. What you really need is some sharp contrast to enhance the charm of your country, and to keep these three people with you would be a benefit rather than an injury to you."

That's DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NURNBERG for kids. Compare Hans Sach's speech to the Mastersingers:

"Gesteht, ich kenn' die Regeln gut,

und dass die Zunft die Regeln bewahr',

bemüh' ich mich selbst schon manches Jahr.

Doch einmal im Jahre fänd' ich's weise,

dass man die Regeln selbst probier',

ob in der Gewohnheit trägem Gleise

ihr' Kraft und Leben nicht sich verlier'!"

or, more briefly:

"Der Regel Güte daraus man erwägt,

dass sie auch 'mal 'ne Ausnahm' verträgt."