As a pre-teen in the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas library, I remember discovering an entire bookcase of “Oz books”, as I then called them. L. Frank Baum indeed wrote many sequels to the book upon which the famous movie is based, and while some are written better than others, they all left a delightful imprint upon my childhood.
As an adult, I now see interesting social commentary throughout the series, but nowhere so much as in this, the first sequel of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In college, I recommended this book to a friend of mine who was studying gender theory, having no idea how rich this tale actually is in material for that subject. For example, at one point, Baum has two armies at war with each other, each made entirely of girls. Non-human characters like the scarecrow and tinman are the real heroes, and women come to their aid when their courage is not enough. Human men in the book are cowards, weaklings, or conniving powermongers. Is it possible that Baum was an early feminist? I know very little of his personal life, nor of his philosophies other than that which he reveals through these fantasies. What I do know is that, two days after I finished reading this book (having purchased it at an antique store, since it is out of print), my mind is still whirling with the repercussions of the story line. There is something to be said for writing which does that.
For those of you who may be wondering, I do read novels intended for adults, but I have discovered that it is far easier for me to find accessible, enjoyable, and succinct literature in the competitive field of children/adolescent writing, than it is for me to find such in books intended for adults. In addition, my less than predictable lifestyle makes it far more pleasurable to bury myself in a book that I can finish quickly, than to draw out a novel over several weeks. I’ll have to review a lengthy “grown-up” novel soon, however, just to keep things interesting for you.
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