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Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (Oz #4)

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 4,520 ratings · 213 reviews

During a California earthquake Dorothy falls into the underground Land of the Mangaboos where she again meets the Wizard of Oz.

Mass Market Paperback, 221 pages

Published April 12th 1984 by Del Rey (first published 1908)

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Jun 09, 2011 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: juvenile, classics, fiction, read-aloud-to-boys

Not my favorite Oz book. It's just reads as a series of unrelated episodes as Dorothy and her companions stumble along under the earth trying to find their way to the surface again. There's the land of vegetable people and the land of creatures made out of wood and the land of invisible people, etc. None of the lands yielded any characters with real staying power.

And the inconsistencies make me wonder if Mr. Baum ever re-read his own books. In Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and Ozma arranged that Ozma woul...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-happy-childhood, read-aloud-to-t-and-j-too-sort-of

Yet another series that I read lots in my youth, and thus retain a fondness for, despite recognizing that Baum is only a middling writer, at best. His inventiveness, which is his greatest strength, often gets out of hand and doesn't lend itself to satisfying narratives with a beginning, middle, and end. And don't even get me started on the inconsistencies... But every now and then, he gets off a really good line:

"H.M.," said the Woggle-Bug, pompously, "means Highly Magnified; and T.E. means Thor...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Kaion rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: series

Dorothy's traveling through San Francisco, when a earthquake occurs and she falls into the Earth. Once again, she's traveling through some dangerous magical lands, this time accompanied with her cat Eureka, her cousin Zeb, and his cab-horse Jim.

I couldn't help notice that this is the first book of the series where Baum doesn't proclaim it to be the last Oz book ever in the introduction. I guess by this point Baum was resigned to the selling power of Oz, and it sort of shows in how much of Doroth...more

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Feb 16, 2009 Carrie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not the The Wizard of Oz, but one of the sequels. Have you all ever read the Oz books? Because they are just plain odd. Baum was incredibly imaginative, and could dream up the most outlandish situations, for sure, but the books are a little bit crazy. Anyway, this one starts off in California, where earthquake causes Dorothy, her kitten, a boy named Zeb and a horse named Jim fall into the center of the earth. They land in a mysterious kingdom where they just happen to run into the Wizard (also t...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Herman Gigglethorpe rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: oz-and-other-frank-baum-books

This isn't as fun as the earlier Oz books. The inconsistencies begin to pile up here. Earlier books said the Wizard usurped Oz, while this book says that 4 witches did it! Besides, if all kings are named Oz, why was the last one called Pastoria? This book has nearly crossed the "M. Night Shyamalan Event Horizon", or the point in which there is more exposition than plot. Every time Frank Baum introduces a new character, he has to tell the entire history of Oz to them!

Most of the story involves Do...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ever day-dream about falling into a crack in the earth and finding strange communities of people living underground? Me neither! Nor did I ever imagine that I'd read about a kitty on trial for murder! This one is strictly for those who can approach it as a child . . .

Sorry. I confess right up front that I'm being completely uncritical here. If I were critical about the preposterous concepts, the lack of development of the new worlds visited, the flake-outs of the continuity of the series, or th...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Gabriel C. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy, 2012

Yikes. This series is not moving in a good direction. Rampant sexism, as Dorothy gets to mispronounce words and cry while her male counterpart gets to think creatively about how to solve problems, participate physically in the solutions, and basically interact meaningfully with his surroundings. Massive xenophobia, as the little group hates almost all the countries they pass through, leading to casual genocide, as they light the wooden people on fire. Good riddance. There's a bunch of weird cont...more

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Feb 08, 2012 Shoshana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: many

Shelves: classics, fantasy, old-favorite

I really like this one. Baum is sometimes hit-or-miss with how interesting the different kinds of people his characters are constantly meeting are (good sentence, Sho), but he is pretty hit in Dorothy and the Wizard. The Mangaboos, the Valley of Vo, the dragonets, and the gargoyles are all neat, although I wish the dragon herself played a bigger role, and I wish we learned more about how the gargoyles came to be and why they fight and imprison all comers, and what they would have done with our f...more I really like this one. Baum is sometimes hit-or-miss with how interesting the different kinds of people his characters are constantly meeting are (good sentence, Sho), but he is pretty hit in Dorothy and the Wizard. The Mangaboos, the Valley of Vo, the dragonets, and the gargoyles are all neat, although I wish the dragon herself played a bigger role, and I wish we learned more about how the gargoyles came to be and why they fight and imprison all comers, and what they would have done with our friends when they were prisoners.

Anyway, Baum's weird occasional moments of retro-sexism are back, as when Dorothy, Zeb, and their horse and buggy are falling through an earthquake-created giant chasm in the earth and Dorothy loses consciousness whereas "Zeb, being a boy, did not faint." What? He's a boy, so his brain doesn't have coping mechanisms for shock? I mean, what?

On the other hand, Dorothy is still her bizarrely (and awesomely) unflappable self. Once she regains consciousness, she stares around her at the chasm through which they are still falling, and then she "sighed and commenced to breathe easier." She then proceeds to basically coach Zeb through the whole beginning of the adventure as they approach and explore the land of the Mangaboos, laughing at stuff that frightens him, encouraging him to try walking through the air, and generally sharing intrepidity with all she meets. I particularly like the part where she reassures Zeb that they're not in any danger because they are falling so slowly, he responds by saying "We'll never get home again, though!" and she tells him not to worry about things he can't help. "The boy became silent, having no reply to so sensible a speech." Go, D!

We also have a characteristic Baum-style inconsistency (well, a couple, probably, but one that I particularly noticed). When the Wizard finally meets Ozma, she explains to him that Mombi was her grandfather's jailor and her father's jailor and that when Ozma was born Mombi transformed her into a boy. But in The Land of Oz, Mombi says truthfully that the Wizard brought her baby Ozma and "begged [her] to conceal the child"! I mean, this is a change that makes sense - as it shows the Wizard in a pretty villainous light, and by this point in the series he is really supposed to have grown on us - but it's a pretty dramatic and unacknowledged revision!

Another discrepancy that's actually relevant to the storytelling is that in Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and Ozma agree that Ozma will check on Dorothy every Saturday at a certain time to see if she wants to come to Oz; in Dorothy and the Wizard, Dorothy says that Ozma checks on her every day at four. In which case, why in this book and the next and the next doesn't that ever happen? I think the weekly check-in would explain why they go through so many truly dangerous situations without rescue.

But whatevs! I'm glad for my own sake that they have so many adventures, because I enjoy them so thoroughly!(less)

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Oct 08, 2011 Charly-kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's true that L.Frank.Baum's Oz books are weird! They transport you to wonderful worlds that are so out there you just feel completely cut off from reality reading them. That is why i like them. I am a big fan of MGM's 1939 musical adaptation of the wizard of oz, and so when i found out that my mum had an old copy of what i thought was the Wizard of Oz in the attic i was eager to get it out and read. when i found it was not the version i had at first been looking for i was a bit surprised. i ha...more

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May 24, 2011 Mimi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am loving reading this classic series!

Once again we meet Dorothy as she experiences yet another natural disaster - this time a "Californy" earthquake that sucks her into more magical adventures. This time she is accompanied by her maniacally mischievous kitten, Eureka (who makes the reader long for Toto's company), the rancher boy Zeb and his old cab horse and even the good 'ol humbug Wizard as they travel through the lands inhabited by Mangaboo Vegetable People, Invisible People & Invisib...more

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Apr 10, 2010 Afsana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an audio and an ok story.

This is the tale of dorothy, jeb, jim and eureka the cat who after an earthquake fall to the middle of the earth and travel through it to find the way home

This is after the other dorothy books (2 of them)

What I find annoying was the writers use of the children, the girl the boy in place of the charaters names. I felt that was strange and out of place esp after we had already been introduced to them

Also the cat eureka who kept wanting to eat the Piglets as wh...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Crystal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Children’s Literature
Crystal Rodriguez
Title: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz Picture Book…Upper
Author: L. Frank Baum
Illustrator: John R. Neill
Place of Publication: New York, New York
Date: 1990 Number of Pages: 256 Grade Level: Upper

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz took me back to when life was simple and a story could be light-hearted and full of make believe. I actually cannot remember the last time I read a book with such charm and innocence. In the beginning of the book, I am intrigued by the writi...more

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Mar 30, 2012 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I decided to try to get through the books of Oz that are written by L. Frank Baum this year and I have thus far gotten through the first four books of the series. I am finding them fascinating because this and the previous book (Ozma of Oz) take place mainly outside of the land of Oz itself and in other fairy lands that Baum has created for the stories. It is interesting to see him say that they are Oz stories simply because they contain the characters briefly or at the end of the tale.

I do, ho...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: oz, childrens_teens_fiction

Dorothy once again ends up in the land of Oz because of a natural disaster. This time it isn't a storm at sea or a tornado. This time the ground literally opens at her feet from an earthquake and down she tumbles. She was on the way with her new kitten Eureka to meet up with her Uncle at his Brother-in-Laws ranch in California after the long trip back from Australia when Dorothy, her cousin Zeb, and the horse and buggy went a tumbling down. And they tumble and tumble, falling far but apparently...more Dorothy once again ends up in the land of Oz because of a natural disaster. This time it isn't a storm at sea or a tornado. This time the ground literally opens at her feet from an earthquake and down she tumbles. She was on the way with her new kitten Eureka to meet up with her Uncle at his Brother-in-Laws ranch in California after the long trip back from Australia when Dorothy, her cousin Zeb, and the horse and buggy went a tumbling down. And they tumble and tumble, falling far but apparently not increasing in speed. They seem to be slowing down. A weird fairy world appears below them illuminated by multicolored suns where all the buildings are glass and gravity seems far more flexible. Also as it's a fairy world Jim the horse pulling the buggy and Eureka soon start chatting away. The people whom they descend on aren't at all pleased with their arrival. The Mangaboos quickly take the trespassers off to their wizard when whom should appear above? Dorthy's own wonderful wizard of Oz!

The Wizard has good timing and not only saves them all from the Mangaboos' wizard, but performs some wonderful humbug magic with nine cute little piglets, that Eureka thinks looks decidedly tasty. The Mangaboos are a strange and cold people, it's like they have no blood, which it turns out they don't, being vegetables! They soon revolt and throw the motley crew out of their land, wherein their true adventure begins, travelling through a land of invisible people where invisible bears are there, oh my. Wooden gargoyles and dragonettes all block the path on their way out of the center of the earth. Luckily when all seems lost, the deus ex machina of Oz swings fully into action and the wizard returns to the land he belongs in.

Looking back on this book I have this odd memory of hating it. Maybe that belief let me free up my expectations and just love it. The wizard is an unlikable humbug, Zeb doesn't do much, Jim the horse has to do the majority of the heavy lifting, but Eureka and the piggies are a delight in this odd comical children's version of what Journey to the Center of the Earth would mean to them. There's a Roald Dahl playfulness that is sometimes lacking in the earlier books that has Baum almost forcing the plot and the characters to interact. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz felt like it just flowed from his pen. Though I do still have Dorothy issues. Dorothy, in another sign of her egocentrism, never thinks of what hell she's putting her family through until she gets bored and it's time to go home. Her Aunt and Uncle where actually MOURNING HER! Full on, black mourning. She almost killed her Uncle with her disappearance on the way to Australia, where they where going for HIS health, and here it is a few months later and she scares them again. There really needs to be a way to not scare the heck out of these good Kansas farm folk. Also, in a total non sequitur, how stupid is Toto? All other animals get to Oz or a fairy land and start chattering away, yet Toto never spoke once in the first book. He must be a total dullard.

Enough odd rantings, I want to state clearly why this book is the best Oz book. Eureka! This kitty cat is all the best qualities of cats, which none cat lovers will probably see as negatives, not understanding the subtlety of cat awesomeness. She's manipulative, vain, only out for herself and never hides the fact that she wants to eat those pork filled piggies. Everyone in Oz always extols their virtues and how wonderful they are, showing them to be pompous asses. Eureka just is. No one really likes her, no one really cares to have her around, but she never justifies, never apologizes, and just is. She won't even defend herself when she is brought to trial on charges of murder (one of the piggies of course). If all the characters would just learn to "be" this series would work so much better. Don't talk about it, don't extol, just be. And if you can, be a cat.(less)

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Jul 08, 2012 Elderberrywine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library

Sooooo - Dorothy, the Wizard, and friends fall into the center of the Earth during an earthquake (this was written two years after the Big One in San Fransisco BTW), where it is oddly not particularly hot, but full of lands populated with all sorts of Odd Beings. They manage, after two thirds of the book, to get within a stone wall of the Earth's surface, only to be trapped in a cave with no outlet.

But wait! Ozma and Dorothy had an agreement that Ozma would check Dorothy's whereabouts every afte...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Tanya D rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm having a fun time reading the OZ books to my kids. I enjoyed these myself as a child and I particularly love the illustrations. This book is #4 and the least favorite we've read so far. The fairy lands and people are super interesting and we enjoyed reading it. But the journey seems even more aimless than in other OZ books. Plus the characters seem more flat in this book than in the others. We learn almost nothing about Zeb or much about the Wizard even. Any character could have been on this...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Mckinley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, adventure, ya, heroine, series

I sure wouldn't want to run into the Mangaboos. What a story! All sorts of stuff happen to Dorothy here. She sure is a cool, calm, and collected little girl.

"I was sure it would come to this, in the end," remarked the old cab-horse. "Folks don't fall into the middle of the earth and then get back again to tell of their adventures—not in real life. And the whole thing has been unnatural because that cat and I are both able to talk your language, and to understand the words you say."

"And so can th...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Jeff Stockett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

These stories are really fun. This one has a very similar feeling to the first one. It involves a long journey through many strange and interesting lands. Of course, this time all of the strange and interesting lands are underneath the surface of the earth.

We get to see the land of the Mangaboos where the people are plucked from bushes. We see the Valley of the Voe where everyone is invisible and the land of the gargoyles where everyone wears wooden detachable wings.

I love the creativity of thes...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a 6-year-old who adores the Oz books, so we've been working our way through them together. This one was quite fun and had some memorable characters and imminent peril and conflict, which is sometimes lacking in Oz books. My favorite pieces were the valley of invisible people who find interesting ways to avoid getting eaten by invisible bears and the attack of the wooden gargoyles. Although **spoiler**, if Ozma could just whisk Dorothy and her friends out of danger at any moment, why didn'...more

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Jan 01, 2011 Lydia Presley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, childhood, fiction

The imagination of L. Frank Baum astonishes me. Just when you think he can't possibly come up with something new and unique, he did it again in this fourth book of Oz.

Creative method of traveling back to Oz? Check. Interesting new people and dangers? Check. Lessons learned? Check.

Then there's.. unusual things - such as walking on air, people made of vegetables, fruit that makes one invisible, miniature piglets and a whole slew of new characters to fall in love with (Eureka the Cat had me laughin...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Virginia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was quite flimsy compared to the previous three books, and especially as a follow-up to the excellent Ozma of Oz.

In a completely unconvincing bit of revisionist history, the Wizard is now shown to have had no part in Ozma's disappearance years ago, although in The Marvelous Land of Oz, it is blatantly pointed out that he conspired with Mombi to prevent Ozma ascending the throne. Since the Wizard is a somewhat love/hate, antihero type of character anyway, there's really no point to this cha...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Book Concierge rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the fourth book in Baum’s “Wizard of Oz” series of fantastical children’s adventure books.
We’re not in Kansas anymore! The book starts with Dorothy visiting California with Uncle Henry, when an earthquake opens a passage to another land. Dorothy, her kitten Eureka (Toto is nowhere to be found in this book), and her new friend Zeb fall through the crak along with the horse Jim and the buggy, eventually alighting in the Land of the Mangaboos (a people who grow like vegetables). There they...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: juvenile

The more I read into the Oz series, the easier it is to recognize what I'm getting with each one: there's the good--solidly enjoyable like the first one, Ozma of Oz, and the Emerald City of Oz for example. There's the bad: Road to Oz, the Woggle-Bug Book. Then there's the ugly: or what I like to call the "Problem" Oz books: The Patchwork Girl of Oz, for example, and well...for example, this one. This Oz book is a puzzle, but in this case this kind of works in its favor. The formula of the series...more The more I read into the Oz series, the easier it is to recognize what I'm getting with each one: there's the good--solidly enjoyable like the first one, Ozma of Oz, and the Emerald City of Oz for example. There's the bad: Road to Oz, the Woggle-Bug Book. Then there's the ugly: or what I like to call the "Problem" Oz books: The Patchwork Girl of Oz, for example, and well...for example, this one. This Oz book is a puzzle, but in this case this kind of works in its favor. The formula of the series gets old, and when it does, the reader can't help but be thankful for the refreshment that breaks like these provide, when all bets are off and the plot gets fragmented, even if some of the fragments don't always fit too well.

This book starts with a bang and features one of my very favorite openings of all the Oz books. Maybe this speaks badly of my character, but I think I prefer when he begins his books with a natural disaster. Sometimes it feels like just anyone can stumble into Oz (a crossroads? really?) but here it still takes the full force of Mother Nature to get there, and that's satisfying. Dorothy and the wizard are reunited, in unexpected circumstances when they both land (rather literally)on the wrong side of fairyland, and they must scramble to fight their way back to the familiar safety of Oz. They are accompanied by an okay horse named Hank and a criminally obnoxious kitten named Eureka, but I can forgive that: Dorothy and the Wizard make a good traveling team. The wizard, always balancing on that line between humbug and genius is as always thoroughly likeable: like everyone's ideal grandpa only with a slightly murky past, and although Dorothy doesn't let him get away with much, she understands that in his heart he's a good man. The last member of their party is Zeb, a farmhand, and he kind of proves what I've started to suspect before...Baum is much better at writing boys. Like Tip and Ojo, Zeb has an authentic feel, and though he's just sort of along for the ride, the genuineness is appreciated amid all the crazy.

The adventures this time have a darker quality than some of the cutesy, gimmicky worlds we come across, so there is a real sense of danger to their voyage--so real in fact, that a little Ozma ex machina might eventually be brandished. Unfortunately, though the first part of the story is strong and seems straightforward enough, once the gang gets back to more familiar territory, things go to pieces for some strange reason. This is entirely thanks to Eureka the kitten, and many of our most beloved Oz characters end up coming off as the worst versions of themselves: even---astoundingly, the Tin Woodsman, apparently moonlighting here as a shyster lawyer. Ozma and the Wizard are also (oddly) old buddies even though we practically just discovered he magically had her hid away while he took over her birthright.

Yeah...so, pity about the end, but still, I feel like it might be one of the stronger books in the series up until that point, which may say something about what a mixed bag this series really is.(less)

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Jul 04, 2012 D M rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

although i'm gonna bash the crap out of this book, keep in mind that IMO baum's imaginative genius never wavered here. His ability to create fantasy from simple continued to amaze me. i gave it a 2 out of 5 largely because of this. overall i felt this book to be darker than the others i've read to date with no strong plot resolution and of a similar formula to baum's first book, 'the wonderful wizard of oz,' which we know i did not enjoy.

so here goes...
dorothy was briefly in san francisco when a...more although i'm gonna bash the crap out of this book, keep in mind that IMO baum's imaginative genius never wavered here. His ability to create fantasy from simple continued to amaze me. i gave it a 2 out of 5 largely because of this. overall i felt this book to be darker than the others i've read to date with no strong plot resolution and of a similar formula to baum's first book, 'the wonderful wizard of oz,' which we know i did not enjoy.

so here goes...
dorothy was briefly in san francisco when another natural disaster (earthquake, yawn) conveniently whisked her away to a magical world, not Oz, but the center of the earth, kinda! dorothy and our new cast plus the wizard of Oz have to find a way back to the world's surface. the center of the worldish was full of many unlikeables from apathetic mangaboos, and invisible people-eating bears to menacing gargoyles and hungry dragonettes. if that weren't enough our new main protagonists were unlikeable as well! zeb, jim the cab-horse, and the horrid kitten cat, eureka, all come off as pompous, aloof, and unhappy. and when they finally make it to Oz in chapter 14 of 20, they don't like it there either. who doesn't like the Land of Oz!?!

and now a few words on that humbug...
My introduction to the wizard of Oz in 'the wonderful wizard of oz' was not a happy one. i found him to have a hint of snottiness and arrogance, but i couldn't get my head around him completely. after reading 'dorothy and the wizard in oz' it confirmed to me how dreadful he was. if he's not in any more Oz books i won't miss him. his saving grace, if-you-will (not!), is that he's a humbug. i fail to find any rewarding qualities about him. he reminds me of gene wilder's willy wonka character from the 1971 movie, whom i also find to be highly unlikeable.

there were 2 major inconsistencies within this book that did not distract me but many discuss - the history of how ozma came to exist and ozma's inability to use dorothy's magic nome belt to save her when she ran into trouble originally.(less)

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Jan 02, 2012 Slayermel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, american, childrens, classics, ebook, fantasy, fiction, kindle, male-authors, own, young-adult, series, 2012

Out of all the books in the wizard of Oz series I have read so far I think this one has got to be my least favourite and there for has taken me the longest to get through. I just had such a hard time wanting to pick it up and continue with the story.

Yet again Dorothy meets with natural disaster, this time Earthquake and ends up in a very unusual fairy land where everything seems to be made of glass. She once again makes some new friends and has to overcome some very unusual circumstances to try...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Bozz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another great addition to the Oz series and a improvement over the last book. I think the more crazy Baum goes with his imagination the more fun it is to go along for the ride. So far. This time out we spend very little time in Oz. Instead Dorothy and co (old and new friends) find themselves trapped beneath the Earth after falling through a crack in a earthquake. Below lay a series of lands and people as bizare and wonderful as one would find in Oz. Some of the stuff is fantastic. One scene in p...more

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Nov 08, 2009 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-read-aloud, fantasy

The more I read of Baum's books, the more I realize how truly WEIRD they are, and how utterly original they must have been (and still are) when they appeared at the turn of the century. This fourth episode in the Oz series has Dorothy falling into the center of the earth when an earthquake opens up a huge crack in the ground. There, she again encounters the wizard of Oz (and his nine pet pigs). They meet killer vegetable people, invisible people (and invisible killer bears), wooden gargoyles, an...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Ryan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This time Dorothy experiences an (possible 'the') earthquake in California, falls into a crack in the earth and travels underground with Jeb, his Jim, and her cat Eureka. They fall into a community of vegetable people who turn out to be about as friendly as you'd expect vegetable people to be after you fell on them (not very), but escape death when the Wizard of Oz shows up - he has managed also to fall into the earth, too - and then are off on adventures underground. Not the best of the bunch,...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Mirrani rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-and-reviewed

This isn't as much of an Oz book as some, taking place mostly somewhere within the earth. Our main characters only make it to Oz near to the end. This doesn't mean that Baum's storytelling was wasted, however. Everyone goes on a typical Oz-like journey through all sorts of unusual countries, giving the reader's mind so much to work with in terms of creating a visual for the places that they should "see" in the text.

Not a favorite in the series, but not a mistake at all, this book has all of the...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Diana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Didn't like this one as much as the first three - and definitely not as much as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the first) and Ozma of Oz (the 3rd). Although I did like the fact that Dorothy serves as a kind of guide for Zeb to have his own adventure and is her usual matter-of-fact, not easily flustered self, which inspires Zeb to see the whole thing as an adventure of a lifetime, I wasn't thrilled with the series of challenges they all encountered. I'm not sure if it was the presence of the Wizard...more Didn't like this one as much as the first three - and definitely not as much as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the first) and Ozma of Oz (the 3rd). Although I did like the fact that Dorothy serves as a kind of guide for Zeb to have his own adventure and is her usual matter-of-fact, not easily flustered self, which inspires Zeb to see the whole thing as an adventure of a lifetime, I wasn't thrilled with the series of challenges they all encountered. I'm not sure if it was the presence of the Wizard in this one, who, frankly, sounded a bit patronizing at times, but there were elements that didn't sit well with me.

It took me longer to read this story than the first three combined, which says something right there. I didn't find it as engaging. It wasn't until the end of the book, when Dorothy finds her optimistic outlook again (after having gotten a bit discouraged that they'd never get out of the constant climbing from the center of the earth) and communicates with Ozma that the story picked up some interest for me. I also wasn't thrilled with the personality that Baum gave Eureka the kitten - although I do have to say that her reasoning for not defending herself against accusations of killing and eating Ozma's pet piglet had me chuckling. Eureka had a stubborn streak and was miffed that they automatically assumed the worst of her.

The different challenges and variety of "beings" they encountered after their tumble into the center of the earth after being caught in an earthquake in California weren't quite as interesting as the adventures in the first three books. I did like Jim the cab horse, but I wasn't thrilled with the way the Wizard and Zeb (and Dorothy, too, at times) often treated him - although he was their salvation many times, they didn't seem to have a lot of respect for him and simply expected him to pull their belongings and the buggy, without ever thinking that he deserved better treatment. All in all, not as satisfactory a story as the previous three.(less)

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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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avg rating	preview: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz Goodreads rating: 3.77 (4520 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/787432.Dorothy_and_the_Wizard_in_Oz?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1178343257l/787432.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/787432.Dorothy_and_the_Wizard_in_Oz?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum[/url]

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (Oz #4)

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