Title: The Scarecrow of Oz
Written by: L. Frank Baum
Series: Book 9 in the Oz series
Publisher: Reilly & Britton
Publish Date: 1915
Genre: Middle Grade Classic!
Pages: 236
Source: Downloaded on Amazon
Buy the Book: The Scarecrow of Oz
Synopsis: Trot, a girl from California, and her friend Cap’n Bill, a retired seaman with a wooden left leg, are out boating when they are sucked down a whirlpool and carried up to a beach (probably by mermaids) inside a cavern. Soon an Ork turns up, which is a funny bird with a parrot head, chopping bowl wings, four legs, and a propellor tail. After much crawling through caves and some flying, the three come out on an island, manage to shrink and re-grow themselves, and land on the mountain of the Bumpy Man in the Land of Mo (where it rains lemonade and snows popcorn). They pull Button-Bright out of a popcorn snowbank (and the fifth book, The Road to Oz) and eventually arrive in Jinxland, part of the Quadling Country of Oz. Here, King Krewl summons a wicked witch with an eyepatch known as Blinkie, who transforms Cap’n Bill into a grasshopper with a wooden leg. Since his niece, Princess Gloria, has fallen in love with a gardener boy named Pon but the king wants her to marry an old courtier named Googly-Goo, Krewl has the witch freeze Gloria’s heart so she cannot love anyone. Glinda sends the Scarecrow to help Trot, Bill, Button-Bright, and the Ork to set everything aright. (Via Amazon)
Brian’s Review: L. Frank Baum once considered The Scarecrow of Oz his favorite of all the Oz novels, but I find that surprising since this is easily one of the weakest of the books. The first half of the book doesn’t really feel like an Oz novel at all, as we follow a few brand new characters as they make (yet another) perilous journey into the unknown. Considering how much these books were guided by his fans, it surprises me each and every time when the core group of beloved characters stay off the page, usually until the last ten percent of the book. Imagine if each Harry Potter sequel opened with a new set of three characters taking a journey to Hogwarts, and we didn’t catch up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione until Chapter Twenty. Not Chapter Two or Three, but Twenty. That’s what each Oz sequel is like.
I don’t need each book to be Dorothy and Ozma’s grand adventures together, but I’d just love things to be mixed up a bit. What if The Emerald City were actually destroyed? What if one of the beloved characters died, and revenge had to be taken? I know the Oz books are for kids, but I’d just like the stakes to go up. The last three books have basically been the same story, but with new characters, and with an ending where Ozma just snaps her fingers and saves everyone, no matter the great danger they all were in.
Of course there were some jobs in The Scarecrow of Oz, and the most fun was to be had in the second half, when the Scarecrow (finally) takes center stage as the hero of the novel. By the 40% mark, I was getting nervous, because there was no sign of Dorothy and the Emerald City, or of the title character himself. But when he shows up, and goes to Trot, Captain Bill, and the Ork, to guide them toward the Emerald City, my interest in the book spiked. The Scarecrow is one of my favorite characters of the series, and in no previous book since the original did he really get much to do, so I was happy to see him play a major role here. With five books to go, I hope Baum will throw a curveball my way, and give me an awesome sequel that could stand up against the two best books of the series, The Wizard of Oz and Ozma of Oz. But as of Book 9, he’s still just going through the motions.
