The Hungry Tiger of Oz

Oz Continued #20

by Ruth Plumly Thompson, John R. Neill (Illustrator)

In which the winsome Hungry Tiger is whisked away to the Kingdom of Rashin an attempt to satisfy his appetite. Little Betsy Bobbin and the perky Vegetable Man join him an young Prince Reddy in a search for the three magic Rash Rubies.

They travel through the Gnome Kingdom, whereupon the Tiger is captured by the Giant Big Wigs. Meanwhile, Princess Ozma herself is kidnapped from the Emerald City by Atmos Fere the Airman. Will the Rash Rubies be magic enough to rescue out friends, defeat the wicked Pasha, and return Reddy to his throne as the Rightful Ruler of Rash?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Classics, Juvenile, Science Fiction Fantasy, Young Adult

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

An avid reader of Baum's books and a lifelong children's writer, Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began her writing career in 1914 when she took a job with the Philadelphia Public Ledger; she wrote a weekly children's column for the newspaper. She had already published her first children's book, The Perhappsy Chaps, and her second, The Princess of Cozytown, was pending publication when William Lee, vice president of Baum's publisher Reilly & Lee, solicited Thompson to continue the Oz series. (Rumors among fans that Thompson was Baum's niece were untrue.) Between 1921 and 1939, she wrote one Oz book a year. (Thompson was the primary supporter of her widowed mother and invalid sister, so that the annual income from the Oz books was important for her financial circumstances.)

Thompson's contributions to the Oz series are lively and imaginative, featuring a wide range of colorful and unusual characters. However, one particular theme repeats over and over throughout her novels, with little variation. Typically in each of Thompson's Oz novels, a child (usually from America) and a supernatural companion (usually a talking animal), while traveling through Oz or one of the neighboring regions, find themselves in an obscure community where the inhabitants engage in a single activity. The inhabitants of this community then capture the travelers, and force them to participate in this same activity.

Another major theme has elderly characters, most controversially, the Good Witch of the North, being restored to "marriageable" age, possibly because Thompson herself never married. She had a greater tendency toward the use of romantic love stories (which Baum usually avoided in his fairy tales, with about 4 exceptions). While Baum's child protagonists tended to be little girls, Thompson's were boys. She emphasized humor to a greater extent than Baum did, and always considered her work for children, whereas Baum, while first and foremost considering his child audience, knew that his readership comprised all ages.

Thompson's last Oz story, The Enchanted Island of Oz(1976), was not originally written as an Oz book.

Reviews

[hpboy13 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nowhere close to the charm, magic, and inventiveness of the originals. These books should not be considered Oz canon.

[Derek L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful entry in the Oz series.

The Hungry Tiger of Oz follows the journey of the Hungry Tiger as he attempts to satisfy his appetite for flesh. However, this doesn't go exactly as planned, as his conscience is much stronger than the desire. Along the way, we are introduced to several new characters, such as the quirky Vegetable Man and Atmos Fere. The latter is introduced as basically a kidnapper intrigued by the things living below him. As you can tell by the name of this character, Atmos lives in the sky.

As much as I loved the story, there were several glaring spelling errors in this edition of the book. I also felt that the way Atmos Fere was introduced to the book was rather quick and disturbing for a child's book:

"She was about to return to the castle when a loud bump sounded just behind her. Spinning about, Ozma saw the strangest sort of figure, sprawled over her favorite rose bush. It was four times the size of a regular man, the body something like a tremendous sausage, with a round, balloon shaped head and pudgy arms and legs. While Ozma was trying to determine what kind of being it was, the huge creature rose with a bounce and came clumping toward her. 'I told Zeph there were people at the bottom of the air!' puffed the stranger gleefully. 'Here is one now. I'll take it straight back to the sky for proof.' Ozma had just time to notice that he wore heavy iron boots, when he bent over and, tucking her under his arm as if she had been a package of sugar plums, kicked off one boot and then the other and soared, like a balloon released from its string, straight up toward the sky" (p. 146).

Toward the end of the story, Ozma does forgive her captor, and the way it is done is very well done, in my opinion. While a lot of people may take issue with Ozma's forgiving nature to her kidnapper, the book does teach about the importance of forgiveness, which is something I would love to see done in contemporary children's books, if it isn't being done already.

Wonderful book, but some questionable execution.

[Pierce Franco · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I have to say I liked that we finally had Betsy Bobbin back, once again, leading a new adventure since she was first introduced by Mr. Baum in Tik-Tok of Oz. I had forgotten how nice Betsy is as a leading character. We can't avoid that this the Hungry Tiger's book, yet I think this was the perfect book/adventure for Betsy to come back.

Carter Green is definitely the most curious and interesting character in this book. All these characters make a curious party of travelers.

However, I have to say that the story feels like a retelling of an older story sometimes, Rinkitink of Oz, to be precise. It has all the elements: a young prince without a kingdom; three magic stones (rubies instead of pearls this time) that can protect him from any harm... very wasted element, by the way; also, they pay a visit to the Nome King's dominion.

I find that these magic countries created by Ruth Plumly Thompson are poor of imagination or they repeat the same elements. I find no differences between Mudge and their wicked ruler, Mustafa, from the Rush country and its greedy ruler, Irashi. There's clearly a Middle East/West Asia influence in her Oz books so far. I'm not sure I like it so much, however, I enjoyed this book more than The Cowardly Lion of Oz.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably the first time during Thompson’s continuation of the Oz series that I’ve been so disconnected from the story that I just haven’t paid enough attention to take anything away from the book.

That’s not to say that it isn’t worth reading though, especially if you’ve made it this far into the series. It still retains a lot of the charm and the whimsy that characterises the series, it’s just lacking on plotting – but then, that’s happened with basically every book in the series, and so perhaps it’s harsh to judge it on that.

There’s also some good stuff about a lot of the characters that we know and love, including the Hungry Tiger, although I’m not sure that he plays enough of a role in the plot for him to take the title. I also quite liked the bits with the giants and the magic wigs that they had, although I don’t want to say too much about that because of spoilers.

All in all, this was just okay, and I can’t say that it’s left me particularly excited to continue. But I won’t stop now.

[Jlz2021 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed to listen the free audiobook of The Hungry Tiger of Oz not only because I watched The Wizard of OZ on TV like everyone does.
But, because I have found a piece full of funny lines, different characters with different design(Airman of Oz, The Vegetable Man of Oz, and many others), and it's incredible to think this occur only in a small book with around 200 pages.
For this reason, I highly recommend you purchase(or listen to the audiobook version of this masterpiece), this book to read alone and/or with your children.
I'm from Brazil, and I'm translating this book into Portuguese language, feel free to contact me if you are interested(in the future I will translate to Spanish version too) in this edition.

Telegram: @Jlz2023
Whatsapp: +5551992323534

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

there's not a lot to complain about out in this one, it's just meh. solidly in RPT's flop era, but not actively bad like cowardly lion was.

i liked seeing more of betsy. i liked the variety of places. i especially liked the (relative) restraint the author showed in not including quite so many annoying rhymes this time. i did not like the part where ozma and betsy anxiously clutch each other and do nothing.

some of it was pretty creative (i liked the idea of the sky man exploring the earth for signs of life!), the plot worked nicely (i liked that the giant wig came in handy in the end), but nothing really charmed me.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful, charming, funny! One of the best Oz books!

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hungry tiger is hungry and agrees to travel to another kingdom to eat the bad people but finds they aren’t bad the king is unjust and has stolen the crown from the prince.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marginalized City Offroad 660066

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Nothing's impossible."

Nothing crazy good going on here - just another cute little romp through a few different Oz places. I like the Hungry Tiger being a main character here; I don't even remember the last time I saw him in one of these books.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a jumble, but a fun one.
Various plot threads trip over each other and occasionally come together.

The cast is full of fun characters and the story is full of fun ideas, but it's hit or miss if Plumly-Thompson knows what to do with them after she introduces them.
The subplot with Ozma could have been a book on its own, and there's a scene set in the gnome kingdom that goes nowhere.
The finale just seems to happen, as though the writer realized she's about to hit her page count limit.

The three leads, the Tiger of the title, young Betsey Bobbins (one of several 'not Dorothy' girls Baum created) and the young Prince are all likable and competent.

Really liked the town of the Big Wigs and the explorer from the air kingdom.
Hope we see them again.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, mostly because I don't remember having read it before (though I'm sure I must have). There is a loose plot running through it--Prince Evered (Reddy) is on a quest for the Rash Rubies in order to take his kingdom back from the evil Irashi who is in charge now. The Hungry Tiger Betsy Bobbin, and the Vegetable Man, Carter, help him on his quest. I wish Carter had been given more to do. I kept waiting for some backstory, or for him to be able to do something unique to help the party, but it never happened. So he was just.....there.

Lots of action on this quest, including the jump down the firefall on the cover of the Del Rey edition. Thompson also makes some political jabs with the city of Down Town and the City of the Big Wigs. They were very amusing.

The Kingdom of Rash is a vaguely Arabic stereotype, but this one is so in the background, you could miss it. Not much time is spent in Rash. There are turbans worn by a few characters, and people being thrown to the tigers, and names like Irashi. I had to look up one particular pun at the end of the book. When facing the Rash army, Carter exclaims "Gamin and spinach!" The phrase "gammon and spinach" is an old British term for nonsense, but the spelling gamin is "A neglected and untrained city boy; a young street Arab" according to one dictionary. So it's a word play on both Carter's vegetable being and the people they are fighting. Can't have a Thompson book without racism, right?

All in all I liked getting to spend more time with the Hungry Tiger, and each little adventure was fun. I also liked the return to a 'quest for a magical item' plot that Baum sometimes used.

[Fred Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I've wanted to read this book for quite a while because the cover of the Del Rey edition is so awesome, showing the Hungry Tiger with passengers on his back, jumping by a wall of flames.

The book itself is a pretty standard Oz adventure. New characters are introduced. They and some of the characters we already know end up on journeys, going to strange places and meeting strange creatures, with puns galore. I did like this book for two reasons . . .

One is that the Hungry Tiger finally gets a prominent role. He has arguably been around since the very first Oz book, in which a tiger is mentioned, but he has officially been around since the third one, but always as a minor character who pulls Ozma's chariot and complains about how hungry he is and how he can't eat babies because his conscience won't let him. This time he's the main character, although we don't learn anything more about his background.

There is also a great chapter in which some of the characters end up in a land called Down Town. I'm not going to say that Ruth Plumly Thompson had foresight, but, at the very least, she had insight. This book came out a few years before the start of the Great Depression, and the chapter on Down Town mocks the obsession with just making money. The king of Down Town is a banker, the queen is literally made of money, and the inhabitants pick what they are going to do from an Indus Tree. Funny stuff.

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as Baum's books....but I do have a copy of my own, read many times.