The Latest Oz Reading

I'm pretty much done with the latest wave of Oz reading (only a bit more of the 2016 edition of Oziana to go), so here are my two most recent Oz books:

• The Bouncy Bunnies in Oz by Marin Elizabeth Xiques is the story of three rabbit girls and the Thist who adopted them. They call him Daddy, of course. The three girls have their own personalities, but it is the impetuous Jodie who gets the lion's share of this book. She ends up on the big adventure, and even meets up with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman out on the Winkie River. We also get to revisit a lot of sites from The Lost Princess of Oz (appropriate for this year, being that book's centennial), and even find out what's in that chasm surrounding the Merry-Go-Round Mountains. It's a pretty harmless book where everything turns out well in the end, and with all the dark and brooding Oz books that seem to be coming more and more frequently these days, that is far from a bad thing!
• Bringing us right up to date is the latest book, volume 1 of the manga series Captive Hearts of Oz by Ryo Maruya and Mamenosuke Fujimaru. It's essentially retelling The Wizard of Oz, but it is definitely manga, as there is a mysterious storyteller wondering why the story keeps changing, and perhaps someone else is on the scene. There are also a pair of human/crow hybrid siblings who torment Hayward, this books equivalent to the Scarecrow, and Leon, the lion character, pretty much shows up just as Dorothy and Hayward meet Nick the Tin Woodman, and helps unrust him. These creators (or possibly translator Angela Liu) really know their Oz, because the Good Witch of the North is named Locasta, the Tin Woodman is named Nick Chopper, and the party spends a night with Nick's creator, Ku-Klip! This volume ends with a mysterious new character rescuing Dorothy during the Kalidah attack, and as volume 2 is already being solicited, I suspect this is a series that could go on for a while.