The Hungry Tiger of Oz

1926, 1985 Del Rey edition

Ruth Plumly Thompson

Illustrated by John R. Neill

The Hungry Tiger of Oz

Bought newish for $5.95

Slightly worn paperback

B-

Except for Ozma being kidnapped by an "airman" (balloon-like man from the sky), this story is mostly about how the title character, Betsy, and a man made out of vegetables help the young Prince of Rash regain his throne.  (Chapter 19 is called "Reddy Restored to the Throne," so this isn't much of a spoiler if you read the List of Chapters first.)  Rash is a small pink kingdom on the edge of Ev, and, yes, the name leads to lots of puns.

There are surprisingly few if any innuendos, but to make up for this, the Del Rey cover (by Michael Herring I've discovered via the Internet) looks like this:





An exciting ride for Betsy!

 



Ahem.  Moving on, there are also a couple of egregious typos.  I haven't commented on this I believe, but nearly every Oz book contains some typos, no matter what edition.  Usually I ignore them, but this time we've got "shudddered" with three D's and a chapter called "The Vegetable Man of Ox."

Neill's work continues to be mostly unimpressive in the 1920s.  He misses chances to offer the Rash palace, or much of Down Town, the place run by King Dad and Queen Fi Nance.  With the latter, I kept thinking how this is three years before the Great Crash.





I do have to say that the androgyny of the illustrations of the child characters has reached a new height.  For over 20 years, Neill has been drawing most of the boys and many of the girls with that same Prince-Valiant-ish hairdo, so Dorothy and the rest have transitioned well into the 1920s.  But here Betsy, whom he used to show with long blonde hair, to help distinguish her from Dorothy's blonde bob, is also sporting a blonde bob.  The problem is, Prince Reddy is as well.  This leads to the picture on p. 191, where it looks like a tiny Betsy is standing on a giant Betsy's shoulder.  In fact, Reddy should be wearing one of the big wigs.  On p. 207, it looks like Betsy is at the coronation of her older sister, when it's Reddy in his crown.  Not only their hair but their eyes, noses, and mouths are similar.