The Road to Oz (1909)

I was a fan with the Oz series growing up, and it's great to know I'm still a fan as an adult! I love revisiting these books, they truly are timeless! ( )

The fifth Oz book by Frank L. Baum! I have to say I'm enjoying these - I find them very relaxing to read after a stressful day at the office! They are full of delightful whimsy, randomness and the childish magic of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. I love the illustrations (the editions I have been reading are illustrated by John R. Neill.) That all being said, they are pretty weird.

This book starts off with any parents worst nightmare - Dorothy meets a dirty homeless transient who then lures her away from her uncle's farm under the pretense of wanting directions to Butterfield. Okay, yes, the "Shaggy Man" is a good guy (well . . . . sort of, I mean people only like him because they have to - seriously, he has a magic "love magnet" . . which . . . this is just getting creepier.) But whether the Shaggy Man is a good guy or not, the implication is that it's okay for children to wander away from home with the first homeless guy who asks them to go on a walk, because good children NEVER come to harm. The book even says this, explicitly. How could any parents read this to their child? Why would Baum write it that way? Did they not have crime in 1909?

Anyway . . . Dorothy, Toto and the Shaggy Man wander into fairy land. On the way they meet a mentally challenged little boy called Button-Bright. I felt so sorry Button-Bright. He is a sweet little boy, delighted by the mechanical people and the animals they meet, yet the other characters are always making fun of him. At one point the Scarecrow launches into this long-winded and incredibly cruel speech:

". . . there are many kinds of buttons, you see. There are silver and gold buttons, which are highly polished and glitter brightly. There are pearl and rubber buttons, and other kinds, with surfaces more or less bright. But there is still another sort of button which is covered with dull cloth, and that must be the sort your papa meant when he said you were bright as a button. Don't you think so?" (p.210)

This is being said to a LITTLE KID who is lost, in a strange place and can't even defend himself. What the Hell, Scarecrow?!

They are also joined by Polychrome, the beautiful Daughter of the Rainbow, who spends all her time dancing around in her colourful gauze gown. Dorothy, Toto, the Shaggy Man, Button Bright and Polychrome wander from the Fox Village, to the Donkey Village and cross the deadly Waste, to make it to Oz in time to celebrate Princess Ozma's birthday. It's a grand celebration involving all the magical creatures of Fairy Land - even Santa Clause!

There's an interesting bit where it's stated that the citizens of Oz don't use money.

"Money! Money in Oz!" cried the Tin Woodman. "What a queer idea! Did you suppose we are so vulgar as to use money here? . . . If we used money to buy things with, instead of love and kindness and the desire to please one another, then we should be no better than the rest of the world . . . Fortunately, money is not known in the Land of Oz at all. We have no rich, and we have no poor; for what one wishes the others all try to give him, in order to make him happy, and no one in all Oz cares to have more than he can use." (p.155-156)

Now this in itself doesn't bother me, I find it interesting and it kind of tickles me how polar opposite it is to modern day American politics, BUT it's just so hypocritical. First of all, the Tin Woodman says "no one cares to have more than he can use" from his GIANT PALACE with its garden of life size statues of all his friends. Plus, the reader is constantly bombarded with descriptions of the rich silk and satin gowns and jewels and gold and palaces in Oz - talk about sending a mixed message! And furthermore, we know that not everybody in Oz gets all these pretty things because, in the second book, Jinjur's girl army stormed the Emerald City so that they could get to wear the pretty gowns and jewels. We know that there are farmers and craftsmen and soldiers in Oz - not to mention all the servants Princess Ozma has waiting on the royal visitors in her palace. Are the fifty servants who wait on the visiting Fairy Queens REALLY only doing it FOR FUN?

Okay, okay, I think I'm thinking about this too hard . . . these books are fun children's fantasy books, after all. Plus, I liked Santa Clause. ( )

I read ebook version. Very cute and creatively written. Fun little excursion from my typical murder mysteries. I have been reading the Oz series in order and I do plan to eventually read all of them, but am in no particular hurry. ( )

As I continue to read these books as an adult I am shocked by what Baum has gotten away with as an author. Some of the spark that I had for this series as a child is quickly leaving as I realize some of the mechanics that he uses as an author that I simply am not fond of or even okay with. He often calls people or things stupid in his books. He belittles frequently and he continues to do that in this book. He also doesn't seem to be that respectful for the most part to his actual fans. It becomes more apparent as you continue to read that has is increasingly becoming annoyed with having to write about Oz all the time, even though he keeps saying at the beginning of the books that he is doing this for the children.

This book has several introductions of characters to Oz. Polychrome, the Rainbow's daughter, happens to be one of the more interesting ones introduced. The Shaggy Man also seems to be a rather interesting character as well and I hope that he is continued to be used throughout the series.

Baum again makes the majority of the book next take place in oz proper and then suddenly we are in oz. Baum found a formula that he likes to use because he wanted to tell other stories. In this book he even makes a point to almost advertise all these other books that he created by who attends the party at the end. These other stories he created show up and to me that was not needed because of how many characters already inhabit the land of oz itself.

Maybe as a grown up individual I can no longer appreciate these books the same way I could as a child. Sometimes we have to recognize that we have outgrown something that we once loved. ( )

This story is about the life of writer L. F. Baum's struggle to provide for his family while taking many business risks. After many years of writing, Baum finally became successful in 1900 with the very popular story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. ( )