The Marvelous Land of Oz, Reviewed by my Son (Age 6)
My son and I just finished reading The Marvelous Land of Oz, the second of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. One of Jackson’s first questions after we finished was whether we were going to do another review 🙂
Just like last time, I asked questions to guide the review, but what follows (except for my italicized comments) are entirely his own words.
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The Army of Revolt took over the Emerald City. The big mission in The Marvelous Land of Oz is to find Ozma and make her the rightful Queen of the Emerald City. The characters are Tip, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Woggle-Bug, and the Gump. The Gump is made out of a broom, a head, sofas, and palm leaves that the Tin Woodman cut and could have gotten killed seven times and imprisoned for life!
This is the first Oz book where people from Oz go outside of the land of Oz. They end up in a jackdaws’ nest, and the Scarecrow loses his straw because he uses it to protect Jack Pumpkinhead and the Woggle-Bug. He has to get stuffed with money!
Several people had warned me about reading this book because of the boy turning into a girl, saying this could be upsetting. So I asked Jackson what he thought about the ending.
I really wanted to see how Princess Ozma got hidden, and she wasn’t even hidden! She was in the body of a boy named Tip. I was surprised. I liked that Tip was Ozma because then the Sawhorse and Jack Pumpkinhead were still able to be in the Emerald City. … ! (Punctuation dictated by Jackson.)
I didn’t like the part where Mombi said she was going to turn Tip into a marble statue and make Jack Pumpkinhead work for her. I didn’t like the Army of Revolt because they took over the Emerald City.
I thought in the beginning Tip was a little mean because he wanted to scare Mombi, but in the end he was nicer. He punished the bad guys and let the Sawhorse and Jack Pumpkinhead stay.
I like both books the same. Everybody should read them.
Below: Jackson’s illustration of The Scarecrow in the Jackdaws’ nest.
Anita K.
June 2, 2011 @ 10:39 am
Another great review! As opposed to other commenters previously, I actually liked the second book much more than the first when I was growning up. I think I just liked the Gump… LOVE the picture, too. I kind of can’t wait for another review. 🙂
Angela Perry
June 2, 2011 @ 10:39 am
The Oz books were my favorites growing up! We had the whole series at our local library. If you can find them, I recommend the books by Ruth Plumly Thompson, L. Frank Baum’s daughter in law. She continued them after he died, and she did a terrific job. My favorite was Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz. Give your son a squeeze for being such a great reader so early! It will do wonderful things for him. But you already know that 😉
Jim C. Hines
June 2, 2011 @ 11:10 am
The Gump was so wonderfully and bizarrely *random* 🙂
I don’t know how long he’ll want to keep doing reviews before he gets bored with them, but I figure it’s good for him to learn how to think about books, and I plan to keep these up for as long as he’s interested.
Jim C. Hines
June 2, 2011 @ 11:11 am
Oh, yes. I am completely thrilled to see him getting excited about longer books. And it’s nice that he’s drawing pictures of this instead of his Mario games!
I figure we’ll go through as many Oz books as he’d like, and if he gets bored of those, I have plenty of other ideas for him 🙂
Kate Shaw
June 2, 2011 @ 1:47 pm
Another great review! I’d forgotten all about the Gump, which fascinated me as a kid. I wanted one, of course. 🙂
Eric Gjovaag
June 26, 2011 @ 11:40 pm
On top of all the highly justified praise for these reviews (yes, please, keep them coming!), I want to add that Ruth Plumly Thompson was not L. Frank Baum’s daughter-in-law, or any relation. They never even met. And if anybody else wants to find out more about Oz, please feel free to visit my website, thewizardofoz.info.