Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz

1939, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Ozoplaning with the Wizard in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-

Continuing the sci-fi note of Silver Princess, Thompson this time puts seven of the characters from the first Oz book into outer space, via the wizard's Ozoplanes.   One of these characters is the Tin Woodman, which is honestly the first memorable thing she's had him do since polish himself when the Emerald Palace was attacked in Kabumpo.  The character who's not given much to do is, perhaps not surprisingly but still annoyingly, Dorothy.  She and her first Oz friends, including the Soldier with the Green Whiskers renamed Wantowin Battles, gather to celebrate her (unspecified) anniversary of arrival in the Emerald City.  But the heroine of the story is Jellia Jam [sic].  Thompson gives her a saucy but clever personality, not too far from the minx of the second book.  Neill draws her with an upswept late '30s do.

As for the Wizard, he invents the Ozoplanes and some other devices, but he's a supporting character, despite getting his name in the title for the third or fourth time.  (I'm not sure how to count the Little Wizard books that Baum wrote, especially since I've never read them.)  His tell-all-escope doesn't tell all, since it gives his background without the whole accessory to Ozma's kidnapping thing.

As the quite good afterword by Michael Patrick Hearn describes, Thompson had very mixed feelings about Oz by the mid-1930s, but reluctantly stayed on.  She had issues with the Baum family and with Reilly & Lee.  And then along came a certain MGM adaptation of The Wizard of Oz.  This book had to tie in with the new movie, which is why the cover looks the way it does, with the Tin Woodman, Wizard, and Scarecrow all greeting something in the sky, the words "The Wizard of Oz" larger than any others.

Thompson got fed up, and financially independent, enough to quit, but she had produced nineteen Oz books, which is why, even though I'm missing a few, I've still read more of hers than of Baum's.  Her output isn't bad but it's rarely on the level of the originals.  This last one does show bursts of imagination, but the plotting is weak, particularly the introduction of yet another dispossessed young royal, once the travelers are back in Oz.  Still, this story, even when the Wizard and friends are plummeting to Earth on an iceberg, doesn't compare to the insanity of what came next....

P.S.  I couldn't find any innuendo!  Although it is weird that there's a husband and wife deer couple.