I read and loved all the Baum OZ books as a child, yet they all disappeared over the constant moving which my family did throughout my adolescence. But when my Mom's business flooded, Mom mailed my personal items which survived the flood out to LA. Somehow, this book survived. I decided to read it again to see if, like Dorothy, I could go home again. Would a book that I loved as a child still hold up?

The answer is yes and no. On the positive side, I was reminded of Baum's skill for creating witty original characters. Everybody knows the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Lion, but Jack Pumpkinhead, Professor Wogglebug, the Gump, the Woozy, were great and this this book gives us The Shaggy Man, clueless Button Bright and Polychrome; Baum had a knack for creating characters with a unique comical dialogue.

Sadly, Baum's narrative structure was always a mess, and The Road to Oz has this problem too: the plot consists of our heroes encountering trouble in several strange lands, only to easily escape and find themselves in another perilous situation in another strange land. Repetitive.

Grade: B