Ruth Plumly Thompson in Oz

The Royal Book of Oz, Kabumpo in Oz, The Cowardly Lion of Oz, Grampa in Oz, The Lost King of Oz, The Hungry Tiger of Oz, The Gnome King of Oz, The Giant Horse of Oz, Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, The Yellow Knight of Oz, Pirates in Oz, The Purple Prince of Oz, Ojo in Oz, Speedy in Oz, The Wishing Horse of Oz, by Ruth Plumly Thompson

“All titles are by Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrated by John R. Neill, and published by Del Rey. After L. Frank Baum passed away, his publisher's saw no reason to let the cash-cow of Oz perish as well (now there's a character and title for you; The Cashcow of Oz!), so they tapped young author Ruth Plumly Thompson to carry on the books that were "Founded on and Continuing the Famous Oz Books of L. Frank Baum." Thompson took the Oz books in a different direction. She created fewer of Baum's eccentrics like the Scarecrow or Scraps the Patchwork Girl; she relied far more on traditional figures like knights, pirates, djinn, and talking animals. While Baum's heroes were mainly girls, Thompson's were mainly boys. There was also a large dollop of Ruritanian romance in Thompson's writing, as well as more of the ordinary boy-and-girl type romance that Baum tended to avoid in his original Oz books. Thompson stopped writing Oz books in the late '30's but published a couple more in the early '70's before she passed away in 1976. These books are in a peculiar format; although only slightly wider than an ordinary paperback, they are eight inches tall! For purposes of the catalog, I'm listing them as softcover. All cover paintings are by Michael Herring.” And three of them (‘Knight’, ‘Pirates’, and ‘Prince’) are in an even larger format, jammed right in the middle of the series. There were four more books planned to be published in this format (“Captain Salt in Oz”, “Handy Mandy in Oz”, “The Silver Princess in Oz”, and “Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz”) but apparently never were, although other recent editions are available … if I were being a completist. Except for an occasional mild ‘historical’ interest – I might point out “The Lost King” (I always wondered about Pastoria) - I don’t find the Thompson books very compelling. But perhaps I came to them too old.

Ranking: Essential to the Baum collection.

File Code: Children’s Books. Novels. Series. Softcovers.