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Rinkitink in Oz (Oz #10)

by L. Frank Baum

3.80 · rating details · 1,302 ratings · 34 reviews

Meet Rinkitink--a kindhearted king who's as fat and jolly as old Saint Nick himself When the jovial monarch sails for a visit to the island kingdom of Pingaree, he and his talking goat, Bilbil, are welcomed with open arms. Before long, Rinkitink's lighthearted ways and merry songs endear him to the king and queen of Pingaree, as well as to their son, Prince Inga.

But when

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Hardcover, 352 pages

Published April 24th 1998 by HarperCollins (first published 1916)

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Jul 25, 2011

Nicolas rated it

By far my favorite Oz book to date. The story and characters are original and don't rely on the standard Oz archetypes. An unlikey group of heroes consisiting of the jolly King Rinkitink, Bilbil the talking goat and young Prince Inga take off to rescue Inga's parents. This takes them to many different lands and ultimately pits them against Kaliko the nome king.
My one complaint is the sloppy inclusion of Dorothy & the Wizard. After follwing King Rinkitink and Prince Inga throughout the sto...more

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Sep 19, 2011

Emily rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, juvenile

This is one of my favorites of the original Oz books. I love the idea of the Three Pearls and the characters of Prince Inga, Zella, Nikobob, King Rinkitink, and Bilbil the goat, as well as the depiction of Kaliko as the Nome King. There's actually some real dramatic tension during Prince Inga's multiple attempts to rescue his parents and their people from Regos and Coregos and especially when Prince Inga and Rinkitink are separated and challenged by the Nome King's magic!

I'm less...more

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Apr 24, 2011

Marti rated it

I have to give this book four stars because it is an old favorite. This particular volume, printed in 1916, belonged to our mother, and was recently restored for us by daughter Susan's friend Marianna, who is also a Goodreads member. She did an excellent job. The hero is Prince Inga of Pingaree, who has the misfortune to have his parents captured and enslaved by the King and Queen of Regos and Coregos. He was up in a tree reading when the raid ensued, and two others who were overlooked were K...more

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Oct 20, 2011

Danns rated it

This book was a refreshing change of pace from the usual story lines I started to complain about last review. Instead of the usual disaster, roam the land of oz, get rescued by Ozma or whatever we have a tale which mostly transpires outside the land of Oz on islands in the Nonenastic Ocean. In fact we don't see any of the usual Oz protagonists until the last few chapters.

The action in this story is quick and exciting, the challenges unique and refreshing and the cast of characters ...more

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Jan 24, 2010

Jason Pettus rated it

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally. This review covers all 14 of the Baum Oz books, which is why it's found on all 14 book pages here.)

I think it's fairly safe by now to assume that nearly everyone in Western society is familiar with The Wizard of Oz, most of us because of the classic 1939 movie adaptation; and many realize...more(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally. This review covers all 14 of the Baum Oz books, which is why it's found on all 14 book pages here.)

I think it's fairly safe by now to assume that nearly everyone in Western society is familiar with The Wizard of Oz, most of us because of the classic 1939 movie adaptation; and many realize as well that author L. Frank Baum ended up penning a whole series of sequels, because of the original book's astounding success back at the turn of the 20th century when it was first published -- 13 sequels altogether, before his death in 1919, which after the movie's success twenty years later became a literal merchandising empire, spawning hundreds more official sequels by various authors and hundreds more unofficial ones once the characters moved into the public domain. And like many others, I've always been interested in what these 14 "canonical" Oz books have to say; and that's why I decided this winter to sit down and read them all in a row for the first time, easy to do because of them being available for free at both Project Gutenberg and the email subscription service DailyLit (which is how I myself read them, and in fact is how I read many of the older books you see reviewed here; I'm a big fan of theirs, and highly recommend them).

But of course, to even approach these books with the right mindset, it's important to understand that like so many other one-hit-wonders, Baum was not only eluded by success in most of his other endeavors but was an active failure at them -- in the 1870s, for example, he unsuccessfully tried his hand at breeding fancy poultry (a national fad at the time), then in the 1880s opened his own theatre and became one of the first-ever Americans to produce modern-style stage musicals, apparently a little too ahead of its time, then in the 1890s moved to the Dakota Territory and opened a dry-goods store that eventually failed, as well as starting a newspaper that folded too. So it was sort of a case of random lightning in a bottle when he decided in the late 1890s to try his hand at children's literature, and ended up with his very first title being the most popular kid's book in America for two years straight, and no surprise that Baum then spent the rest of his life desperately trying to figure out how to bottle that lightning again. Because now that I've read it myself, I can confirm that the original Wonderful Wizard of Oz is astonishingly great, a sort of miraculous combination of traits that makes for an almost perfect children's story; and although most of it follows the same storyline seen in the '39 movie, there are also significant differences, making it worth your while to sit and read the book version if you have the interest. (And by the way, for some really interesting reading, check out the academic analysis that was done of this book in the 1960s, arguing that most of its details symbolically correspond almost exactly to various political and economic issues of the late 1800s, including the yellow brick road representing the much-discussed gold standard of that age, the scarecrow representing the then-hot Populist Party, Toto representing the teetotaler [prohibitionist:] movement, and a lot more.)

But of course, there are a couple of details about this book that have been forgotten over the decades too, which also help explain its record-shattering success -- it was an unusually lavish book for its time, for example, with two-toned illustrations on every page and several full-color plates, and let's also not forget that Baum himself mounted a Broadway-style musical of Oz just two years after the book was published, a huge hit which toured nationally for a decade and that was even more insanely popular than the book itself (including making national stars out of vaudeville performers Fred Stone and David Montgomery, playing the Scarecrow and Tin Man; the stage production left out the Cowardly Lion altogether, which is why he is also barely seen in any of the 13 canonical sequels). And so that's why when Baum attempted starting up other fantasy series in the wake of Oz's success, hoping to turn all of them into lucrative franchises like the original, the audience mostly responded with yawns; and that's why Baum eventually went back to writing more and more Oz books as the 20th century continued, because by now the strength of the brand far outweighed the relative writing skills of Baum when it came to any particular volume.

That's why, at least to adults, it's perhaps actually the introductions to each book that are the most fascinating thing about them; because to be frank, most of the books follow a pretty familiar formula, with a danger-filled quest involving various kooky characters that is usually finished about two-thirds of the way through, followed by a massive parade or party that lets Baum trot out the growing number of main characters added to this universe with each title. (And by the way, prepare yourself for Baum's unending love of the deus-ex-machina plot device; over half the books end along the lines of, "And then our heroes took possession of a super-duper magical device, which they waved in the air and all their troubles went away.") In fact, for those who don't know, that's why the official map of Oz and its surrounding lands eventually grew so large, because Baum still hadn't given up on his dream of having a whole series of kid-lit cash cows out there generating revenue for him, and so would use many of these Oz sequels to introduce entirely new casts of characters who live in entirely new lands, "just over the mountains" or "just past the desert" of Oz itself. By the end of the original 14 books, in fact, Baum had built up a virtual aristocracy of licensable characters, all of whom would have to be dragged out for a cameo at some point in each book to remind the audience of their existence -- not just the cast of the original book and '39 movie but also various other princesses like Ozma and Betsy Bobbin, boy characters like Ojo the Unlucky and Button Bright, adults who help them like the Shaggy Man, Cap'n Bill and Ugu the Shoemaker, and of course a whole litany of quirky fantastical sidekicks, including but not limited to Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Great Jinjin, Billina the Angry Hen, Scraps the Patchwork Girl, and Polychrome the Rainbow Fairy. Whew! And so did the Great Oz Merchandising Experiment keep limping along for two decades, with each sequel selling less and less and getting lazier and lazier (for example, the tenth book in the series, 1916's Rinkitink in Oz, was actually a non-Oz book written a decade previous, published almost unchanged except for a hasty final chapter full of Oz regulars slapped onto the end); and thus did Baum's bad luck in business come back with a vengeance as well, with three more Broadway productions that were all flops, and even the establishment of a film production company in 1914 that eventually went bankrupt.

You can see the progression of all this reflected in Baum's first-person introductions to each book, which like I said is why they might be the most fascinating parts of all for adult readers -- how in the first sequel, for example, he expresses legitimately gleeful surprise and joy at how passionate his fans were, and how thousands of children had literally written to him out of the blue demanding more Oz stories, while with each subsequent sequel his tone becomes more and more snarky, ala "Well, dear and wonderful children, you've yet again demanded another Oz book like the sheep you are, so here it is, you screeching little monsters." In fact, in book six of the series, 1910's The Emerald City of Oz, Baum flat-out states that it's going to be the very last Oz book, and it's no coincidence that many fans actually consider this one to be the best of the original fourteen, because of Baum's extra attention to and enthusiasm for this particular storyline, thinking as he erroneously did that it would be the grand finale of the entire Oz universe; but after his later financial failures forced him back into the Oz business again, the gloves finally come off in his introductions, with most of the rest sounding to today's ears something like, "Well, okay, here again is the sugary teat you all apparently can't get enough of suckling, you infuriating little animals, so open wide and take your medicine." Now, of course, you shouldn't feel too bad for Baum; by the last years of his life, his combined books and plays were generating for him in today's terms roughly a quarter-million dollars a year just in personal royalties.

So all in all, an experience I'm glad I had, reading all fourteen original Oz books in a row, but not something I'd recommend to others; instead, maybe better just to read the first, then skip to the sixth, then skip straight to the 14th, 1920's Glinda of Oz, because of its unusual darkness (probably caused, many scholars agree, by Baum knowing that he was near death). As with many authors I've looked at here at CCLaP, history seems to have correctly adjusted itself in Baum's case, with most of his books now rightfully falling into the obscurity they deserve, even while his one true masterpiece is still rightfully recognized as such. (less)

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Jun 20, 2011

Joshua Gross rated it

I like this one a little better. It's surprising the number of Oz books that don't actually take place in Oz. In a lot of them, the main action of the book takes place somewhere else and then ends with some grand banquet at the Emerald City. Also, often a book's title has little to do with the actual contents, such as this one. Rinkitink was in the book a lot and was a main character, but he was not the main protagonist and was mostly along for the ride. Also, he spent maybe one chapter actually...more

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Aug 07, 2011

Richard Koshak rated it

Shelves: classics

Once again, Baum produced an excellent child's novel. I believe one can see the maturation of Baum as a writer as one progresses though the Oz books because this book had a much better story arc than most of his previous works. However, his love of deus ex machina to solve the story's main conflicts at the end still remains a sore point for me.

Rinkitink in Oz almost has nothing to do with Oz whatsoever for the vast majority of the book. Instead it takes place on islands in the ocean ...more

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Nov 11, 2011

Erin rated it

Shelves: 2011, series, childrens

While reading the Oz series, I never know if Baum is going to throw annoying, tedious characters at me or funny, enjoyable, unique characters. I am happy to say that Rinkitink was one of the better books in the series. Prince Inga and his magic pearls, fat Rinkitink and his talking goat Biblbil, and all the crazies from all the kingdoms made this one of my favorite in the series.

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Nov 09, 2011

Rich Meyer rated it

Average entry in the Oz series, though it only qualifies as an Oz book because of a bit of deus ex machina in the end. It has some interesting characters, but it just doesn't have the panache of an Oz book that features the more noted Oz-ites (who do show up at the end, in the standard chapter re-introducing every single major character in the stories to inflate the word count).

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Oct 07, 2010

Dianna rated it

Shelves: 2010-read

One of the best Oz books I've read yet! I read in the afterword that Baum actually intended this as a non-Oz book originally (no surprise, since the Oz part at the end seemed an afterthought and somewhat contrived).

It tells the story of Prince Inga, who rescues his parents and the people of his island nation with the help of three magic pearls. King Rinkitink is a funny character; I love his laugh.

I'm glad Baum decided to re-purpose this book into his Oz series—I'm sure...more

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Feb 02, 2009

Jennifer rated it

I always liked this story as a child because it features Inga, one of the few male protagonists of Baum's I could stomach (he's a reader and a daydreamer, which Baum apologizes for, saying as a prince he never had the opportunities to rough-house with other boys). This is a fun romp with a Dorothy-ex-machina ending an a very unfortunate interlude in which a goat is turned back into a human by stages--from a goat to a a "higher order of animal" to a "lesser order of human" an...more

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Sep 24, 2011

Hpboy13 rated it

A very interesting book, because almost all the action and all of the characters are not from Oz. Rather this expands the world Baum has created, and we get to see more of the outlying countries, and we see that the new Gnome King is not that much better than the old one.

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Aug 09, 2011

Megan rated it

Read this one with my son in our continuing reading of the Oz series. We found this to be one of the better ones of the series. We liked the new characters and the fact that it wasn't yet another travelogue of introducing a bunch of unusual peoples/places. Surprisingly fun.

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Feb 04, 2012

Renae rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, ebook

Actually liked this one quite a bit. Has a definite, original plot, and some really interesting characters.

Use of "Rinkitink in Oz" as the title is a little dicey--he's only there for the last couple of chapters...but I understand it was probably a marketing choice.

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Dec 31, 2008

Wils Cain rated it

The majority of this story revolves around all new royal characters. Not until the last 20 pages do Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, et al, come in and save the day. I don't ever want this series to end, but alas.

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Jun 12, 2010

Christine rated it

This was my least favorite of the Oz books, even though I did like how it really wasn't an Oz book until the end of the story. Prince Inga was just such a dolt that it was hard to aave sympathy for him!

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Oct 23, 2008

Chandra rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: wizard-of-oz, kids-young-adult

This 10th book in the series is interesting for what it tells us about Baum and his potentially ambivalent feelings about the Oz series. I think he wanted more exposure for his non-Oz stories, but the popularity of that series made that pretty much impossible. Imagine JK Rowling trying to write an entirely different book in the middle of the Harry Potter series. So in this book he tries to work out this dilemma by telling a fantasy story almost entirely unrelated to Oz, but having the familiar...more

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Sep 28, 2009

CLM rated it

Shelves: fantasy, series

Although this installment of the Oz books focuses on new characters, it was always a favorite of mine, and one I think of whenever I wear pointy shoes or wear my pearls.

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Mar 24, 2009

Benjamin added it

I remembered I liked this one a lot, but maybe it was just relief after the disappointing "scarecrow"

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Jun 09, 2009

Rachel rated it

One of the funnest and funniest books I've ever read

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Jun 04, 2010

Sarah added it

Out of my collection, this one went missing :(

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May 01, 2009

Tommyb added it

Shelves: 11-21-2007, 5-52

Fiction,Children's fiction

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Apr 07, 2011

Thomas rated it

Shelves: books-i-read-by-myself

It was amazing!

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Mar 21, 2010

Janie Hepler rated it

love this one!~

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May 16, 2011

Deviant Geek rated it

Shelves: audio-book, children, classics, magic, adventure

i really loved rinkitink. drastic change in the usual characters!

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Jun 19, 2010

Widsith marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Rinkitink in Oz by L. Frank Baum (1993)

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Aug 11, 2011

Lady Lioness marked it as keepers · review of another edition

under bed

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Feb 25, 2011

Amyem added it · review of another edition

Shelves: own

Perhaps it should be called Inga of Pingaree but otherwise, one of my faves.

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Apr 21, 2008

Karen rated it

Shelves: childrens, fiction

I hope I'm not lying when I say I've read this. In elementary school, I hunted down every Oz book on the planet--so I must have caught this one...

Anyway, I don't remember a bit of it.

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Sep 15, 2007

Lori Anderson rated it

I collected these right before my son was born (2003) and recently read them all -- so much fun!

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About L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author, actor, and independent filmmaker best known as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of one of the most popular books in American children's literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, better known today as simply The Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a plethora of other works (55 novels in total, 82 short stor...more

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Rinkitink in Oz (Oz #10)

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