The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum - Ozathon24

Title: The Road to Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Illustrator: John R. Neill
Publication: Dover, paperback, originally published in 1909
Genre: Children’s fantasy/series

Description: When a shaggy man asks Dorothy Gale to show him the road to Butterfield, she should probably yell, “Stranger danger!” instead being beguiled by the twinkle in his eye. She offers to take him to the correct road and they set off, with Toto following. When they reach a place where five roads branch in different directions, she indicates the one for him to take, only for the Shaggy Man to explain he wants to avoid Butterfield! But even as they are discussing which route he should take, the roads begin to multiply and she no longer knows which way is back to her Kansas farmhouse. Finally, she and the Shaggy Man decide to take the seventh road, which begins yet another adventure for the girl. They come across the dimmest child in fiction (people think Davy in Anne of Avonlea is bad but this boy is beyond tedious), Button-Bright, and Polychrome, the Rainbow’s daughter, and head toward the Emerald City of Oz, because Dorothy soon realizes they have entered fairyland country. Along the way, they have various adventures: they encounter a realm of foxes, and Button Bright is given a fox’s head, much to his dismay; they visit the land of Dunkiton in which the Shaggy Man receives a donkey’s head; they meet a singer who cannot stop singing; and they are threatened by the Scoodlers, who remove their heads as needed to use as weapons against our protagonists. Everyone they meet mentions that Ozma is throwing herself a lavish birthday party and begs Dorothy to get them an invitation.

Eventually, the group reaches the desert, too dangerous to cross, but Shaggy Man summons a friend, Johnny Dooit, who quickly builds a boat to carry them over the sand. Soon they are in Oz, where they are welcomed by old friends from Ozma of Oz, Tik-tok, the machine, and Billina, the hen that was shipwrecked with Dorothy. Once they reach the Emerald City, there are other friends to greet them, animal heads to un-enchant, lavish apartments and fancy clothes waiting for them and, soon, Ozma’s birthday celebration. Everyone except old Mombi the witch is invited, including many fairytale characters from Baum’s other books. Everyone enjoys the celebrations but finally Dorothy says it is time for her to go home – and Ozma transports her and Toto safely home while they are sleeping.

My Impression: Dorothy is used to adventures by this fifth Oz book so does not despair when she gets lost, not far from home. She likes the Shaggy Man, who owns a love magnet that causes everyone in his path to love him, including the hostile Scoodlers, but sometimes this boomerangs.

Happening just then to feel the Love Magnet in his pocket, he said to the creatures, with more confidence:

“Don’t you love me?”

“Yes,” they shouted, all together.

“Then you mustn’t harm me or my friends,” said the shaggy man, firmly.

“We love you in soup!” they yelled, and in a flash turned their white sides to the front.

I am surprised this never became a catch phrase in my family!

As Dorothy and her companions approach the Emerald City of Oz, the Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger come to carry them into the city in Ozma’s royal chariot. Polychrome is impressed and asks if Dorothy belongs to the nobility:

“Just in Oz I do,” said the child, “’cause Ozma made me a princess, you know. But when I’m home in Kansas I’m only a country girl, and have to help with the churning and wipe the dishes while Aunt Em washes ‘em. Do you have to help wash dishes on the rainbow, Polly?”

“No, dear,” answered Polychrome, smiling.

“Well, I don’t have to work any in Oz, either,” said Dorothy. “It’s kind of fun to be a Princess once in a while, don’t you think so?”

Dorothy remains humble but she is not the only one enjoying herself. Everyone in Oz “seemed happy and contented, for their faces were smiling and free from care, and music and laughter might be heard on every side.” The Tin Woodman says no one in Oz works more than half the time, and he had previously explained that no one is vulgar enough to use money either:

If we used money to buy things with, instead of love and kindness and desire to please one another, then we should be no better than the rest of the world,” declared the Tin Woodman. “Fortunately money is not known in the Land of Oz at all. We have no rich and 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.”

The Shaggy Man likes what he hears and decides he’d like to stay in Oz permanently. He confesses that he actually stole the Love Magnet because he wanted to be loved (was he really avoiding Butterfield because someone owed him $.15 or is he persona non grata due to his theft?). Ultimately, Ozma offers him a conditional home in Oz, but he has to earn it by being honest and true.  Her birthday party is somewhat of an anticlimax, a cross-promotion parade of characters (only some of whom I remembered) from Baum's non-Oz books.

Source: Library. I reread this for Lory’s Ozathon24 but it does not have the appeal of Baum's best.