AERIE Books -- pb? -- ? -- 178pp
ISBN: 1-55902-989-7
In which the young boy, Tip, runs away from the witch, Old Mombi, saves the Emerald City from an army of girls, restores the Emerald City with the rightful ruler, journeys the Land of Oz with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman and his own creations, Jack Pumpkinhead and the Saw Horse, and the Wogglebug and the Gump.
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First, the edition of this book is somewhat odd. I purchased it on eBay, not knowing what edition I was getting. It turns out to be a books from Wal-Mart (printed right on the cover on what appears to be a large orange sticker, but is actually part of the printing. There is absolutely no publishing or copyright information inside the book. Doing an ISBN search on both Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com bring up Oz books, but different Oz books on each site, neither being the one I currently posess.
The book definitely suffers from the usual second book syndrome. Trying to recreate the magic of the first book, by altering just a few things. Keeping a few of the characters from the original book as a tie to the story's roots, Baum places a boy in the main role (Tip) instead of the girl, Dorothy. Jack Pumpkinhead replaces the Scarecrow as the "idiot" for whom everything needs explaining.
I've been reading this aloud to my boys at bed-time, and they've been enjoying it, remembering even minor details, even if we happen to have a week between nights that I read. From their point of view, it's a wonderful story and certainly had them engaged, even though some of the language was hard to follow.
I've enjoyed reading it because I've never read anything but the first in the series. We will read more of the Baum Oz books, but I will read something else in bewteen Oz stories.
While I didn't necessarily care for the story so much, I will say that the characters and interactions between characters was so incredibly different from anything else I've read. Perhaps that's why the boys have been enjoying it as much as they have. Even Harry Potter doesn't compare to absurdities and uniqueness in these Oz books.
Although I've had some fun reading this, I can't exactly give it a recommendation. It's just a bit too slow and with no real plot.
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