The Patchwork Girl of Oz & the Oz Series

Submitted by drekiaa t3_107vk08 in books

Hey guys!

I just finished the seventh book of the Oz Series, and is anyone else as in love with these books as I am becoming? Not only are they obviously extremely strange, creative, just so completely out there, but I am actually impressed with Baum's word-play ability. An entire scene in this book is dedicated to a war that has broken out between a one legged species, and a two legged species, over a joke that a 2 legged individual made that the one legged isn't as "under-standing", because they only stand with 1 leg under them, vs the two legs under the other folks.

They're just full of so many goofy, but honestly really clever puns & sentences like this. I can't wait to read the rest.

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ok_chaos42 t1_j3otkco wrote

Love the Oz books! Being able to escape into Baum's world while I was in the military was really nice. It takes your imagination to places that always existed when you where small but haven't been to in so long. I've read the first three Oz books to my daughter. I think I enjoy them a bit more than she does but I love sharing them with her while she let's me.

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Maltese_Vulcan t1_j3ou7h8 wrote

When I was a kid, I read all of them published to that point. I was well into adulthood when I found out Baum didn’t write all of them, I loved them all. I remember being especially enamoured with the lunch box and dinner pail trees. And now I need to reread them all, and read all the new ones published since!

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laconicflow t1_j3ov3h2 wrote

I remember the one where people get turned into ornaments as being very suspenseful I was like 8 or 9. Wheelers and the tick-tock man were cool.

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ottprim t1_j3owbxi wrote

I loved them. I read somewhere that they were huge when they came out starting in 1900, a new one came out every year and they were so popular two decades later, another writer picked them up when he died. It seems they were the go to Christmas present every year for kids.

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Amazing-Panda-5323 t1_j3otlo0 wrote

I started the first book today and I love it! Idk anyone who has read the series, so I appreciate your comments

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Overlord1317 t1_j3q0e0e wrote

I really liked the second and third books as a kid (the second book has a twist ending that absolutely shocked the living shit out of me), with the third (Ozma of Oz) being my favorite. Despite the series being pretty lengthy, I distinctly remember those two entries being far away and the best ... to the point where I kind of thought the rest were a disappointment.

Wow ... a wave of nostalgia so palpable it's almost overwhelming just struck me.

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Chickens1 t1_j3oxgm4 wrote

Tore through them as a kid. Thought I had a secret the rest of the world didn't know about. The idea of the one wizard type guy who came up with the come-to-life potion by stirring four pots constantly with a stirrer in each hand and each foot for some ridiculous amount of time. He was the brains behind creating Jack pumpkinhead, the scarecrow, the sawhorse, and I think he had something to do with the tin man, though he started out human I believe.

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drekiaa OP t1_j3oyfky wrote

The Crooked Magician, he was a main feature of this one in particular I just finished! 6 whole years, and then the Wizard took away his magic & his crookedness.

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Chickens1 t1_j3oyrgl wrote

I probably read that 45 years ago and it stuck hard with me.

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karmagirl314 t1_j3oz2lr wrote

Have you read Pratchett? If you love clever humor and wordplay you’ll love his Discworld Series.

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drekiaa OP t1_j3p18so wrote

I haven't but adding to my list now. Thank you!

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perpetual_retailer09 t1_j3p9c7m wrote

I love this book and looking forward to the next part of the series.

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LupinThe8th t1_j3pmnyp wrote

Patchwork Girl of Oz is actually the first chapter book I ever read by myself. It's always been my favorite Oz book for that reason.

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ShinyBlueChocobo t1_j3r7o9l wrote

The first three are great, then Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz came along and had to ruin everything. He pretty much throws all continuity out the window at that point and it slowly turns into this nightmare world where everyone is stuck with Ozma, Dorothy and Glinda controlling everything. I read all 14 Baum books last year (which doing them all at once was probably a dumb idea) because I wanted to see what they were all about after reading The Wicked Years (which I loved) and I kind of hated most of them. Dorothy turned into one of my least favorite book characters by the end of it haha. But that's just me glad to know other people are reading them because like I said I think the first three are really great

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maneating_tiger t1_j3tbemo wrote

I was super into the Oz series as a kid (although I don't think I ever read the last one) and really loved the Reilly and Lee editions with all the drawings and pictures, Road to OZ had rainbow colored pages which was super cool. I really need to read them again, I loved how consistent his humor and the logic of all the different places stayed through the books.

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