Title: The Royal Book of Oz
Author: Ruth Plumly Thompson
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 256
Rating: 3.5/5
I wasn’t too sure what I’d make of this one going into it because it’s the first of the Oz books to be written and published by a third-party after L. Frank Baum’s death. It had a little introduction to it that was surprisingly moving because it was written by Baum’s widow and talked about how he’d gone on to another place.
I think that Thompson did a pretty good job of continuing the story and she nailed Baum’s style, as well as his whimsical and often contradictory approach to storytelling. It was different enough that I think I would have been able to tell that Baum didn’t write it, but it wasn’t so different that it clashed with the other books or felt as though the series had headed off in a random direction.
Given that the Oz series was already pretty long at the time of Baum’s death, I’m not sure if it really needed to be continued, but it’s not as though the continuation ruined it. In fact, I’m pretty glad that there are more books to read, and I just hope that it doesn’t jump the shark.
That leaves us with a decent little read about the Scarecrow and how he finds his family tree, accidentally becoming an unwilling king in the process. And of course, the usual suspects are coming along for the ride.
