The Latest Reading

My reread of the works of Eloise Jarvis McGraw continues!

• A Really Weird Summer is, well, weird, and Eloise's firsht brush with the supernatural. Nels' parents are getting a divorce and both working far away for the summer, so the kids are shuffled off to an aunt's place in rural eastern Oregon that used to be an inn. It's weird enough dealing with not having either parent, and dealing with their aunt and uncle's quirky ways, but when Nels spots a mysterious figure in a mirror, it just gets weirder. Alan befriends Nels and gives him something to focus on for the summer, but before long he realizes that there's something weird about Alan. How come Alan can't leave his rooms in the inn? Why does he never see Alan's mother, or any evidence of his father? But it takes Nels' brother, Stevie, to figure out that something is seriously wrong with Nels, and Stevie decides it's up to him to do something about it. Eloise has a great sense of knowing what's important in a kid's world, and uses that knowledge to give her stories depth and heft — three-dimensionality, as the late Warren Hollister put it. The weird stuff is never explicitly stated or explained, which just adds to the weirdness, but it is definitely there, adding a layer to at least Nels' experiences in the book. Although not the kind of book that usually has pictures, Eloise also contributed two drawings of the inn, before and after Nels' experineces, just to show how weird things are. Even though I doubt you could call this a mystery, I can see why the Mystery Writers of America gave its Edgar Award for Best Juvenile to this book.
• Normally I only read one of Eloise's books at a time, but I know that Joel and the Great Merlini, her only book for very young readers, would be a quick read, so I added it. Joel loves doing magic tricks, but is frustrated that he can't always get them right, even with practice. So he wishes on the evening star, and the Great Merlini is there to help him out. Only trouble is, Merlini's idea of magic doesn't jibe with Joel's. Merlini practically takes over Joel's act and has Joel performing real magic, like pulling a St. Bernard out af a hat! At first, though, Joel doesn't mind, and he's a smash at the school's talent night. But Merlini's tricks are so good that Joel is suddenly doing shows several nights a week, and his schoolwork is suffering. Not only that, he becomes more and more uneasy that Merlini's doing most of the work. This leads Joel to have to make some very tough decisions, and dealing with Merlini. It's a fun little romp about integrity and persistence without getting preachy. Joel is definitely a good kid, even if it takes him a while to figure out the right thing to do.

The Latest Oz Reading

Yes, I'm reading a lot of Oz stuff again. Not only that, I also have a pile of stuff I've read but not discussed here yet, some going back two or three years now! Yes, it's been a crazy time for me, but I'm on my summer break right now and I'm trying to deal with a lot of the clutter in my life right now, while I have the chance, before my summer gets extremely crazy in a few weeks. But more on that as things get closer, although there may be some hints in what I've been reading. Let's start with some books I've reread:

• The Lost Princess of oz by L. Frank Baum. My slow progression through the Oz books, in order, has reached 1917. Lost Princess is particularly important to me because it was the last of the Baum books I owned as a kid, although I'd read the library's copy first. I then got it for Christmas from my always-supportivg grandparents. Looking in that original Reilly & Lee white edition, I noted the the inscription read 1975. This was a little over a year after I started collecting the books, so this year marks my fiftieth year as an Oz fan! Getting back to the story itself, it does hold up as an exciting adventure. It might seem overwhelming to keep track of as many characters as Baum put into this book, but they're all distinctive (well, except maybe for Betsy Bobbin and Trot), and it's plot is tight. Perhaps Baum should have introduced Ugu a little earlier, but the shock opening of so much Oz magic missing all at once certainly grabs the reader.
• Kabumbo in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson. No, I'm not jumping ahead in my FF reading, it's just that the long-delayed Clover Press edition, with new illustartions by Sara Richard, arrived. Richard's style is a lot different from John R. Neill's, but her work is still gloriously Ozzy. Naturally she had to draw Ruggedo as a giant with the palace on his head, and it has the same impact as Neill's version. My biggest complaint is that there aren't enough illustrations. Come on, Clover Press, Oz is such a vivid place, let's see more of what it looks like! If you can't spring for more full-page color illustrations, put some black-and-white line drawings in the text.
• Grampa in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson. Since it turns one hundred this year, and I needed some information from it for something coming up, I thought I'd also reread another Thompson book. I've always said that the basic stories of both Kabumpo and Grampa are the same, and reading them back to back just cemented that for me. These are archtypical Thompson, with a prince going out into Oz to save the kingdom and find a wife, only to find that their future bride was already traveling with them under an enchantment. That doesn't make Grampa any less fun, as it also has unusual locations and characters. Grampa didn't strike me as being quite as strong as Kabumpo, but it was still a fun read.
• Visitors from Oz by Martin Gardner. Did I mention my busy summer coming up? I wanted to reread this for another project that's coming up. For a book about Dorothy traveling back to modern-day America, she takes an awfully long time to get there. And when Gardner takes unnecessary side plots, he doesn't mess around! On their way to the remote part of Oz where they can visit America, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Sawhorse end up visiting the old Greek gods of Olympus and Wonderland! But after these diversions, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman finally make it to modern-day New York to help a movie mogul publicize his upcoming Oz movie. It goes about as well as you'd expect, with the tabloid press accusing them of being actors (and the Tin Woodman a robot), a rival studio sending mobsters to go after them, you know, the usual sort of thing. It is pretty clover, though, and Dorothy has much to contemplate about how much America has changed since she last lived there. This being Gardner, mathematics is used in a clever way to travel between Oz and New York. I think Gardner was much more successful writing articles and essays about Oz, but an a one-time experiment, this is a fun one.
• Master Cornhill by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. My reread of the works of Eloise Jarvis Mcraw has hit the '70s, and this is one of my favorites. Michael Cornhill is eleven and finds himself on his own in London during the Plague and must figure out how to survive. He taken under the wing of Tom Godfrey, a balladeer, but his friend Susanna keeps reminding him that it's not the only, or best, way to make ones lot in life. Then the Great Fire of London strikes, and everyone does all that they can to survive. McGraw had written historicals about ancient Egypt and the Old West, but this is her first one about Great Britian, and it's clear she's done her research. The little details and Michael's reactions feel so genuine and give a real sense of what seventeenth century London must have been like.
• One new book I recently read seems to be the second of a series of non-Oz books by L. Frank Baum, after The Maid of Arran. The new reprint edition of The Art of Decorating Dry Goods Windows and Interiors makes one of Baum's rarest books available again. This is for Baum completists only, as it's exactly what the title says. It's an interesting time capsule of the early days of department stores and how they attracted customers. Baum compiled many clever ways for stores to display their wares and draw people in. Had his fiction writing career not taken off the way it did, this kind of work may have supported Baum instead. Since I've now read some new Baum reprints, I'm now adding Baum's non-Oz books into my regular readings, but most of them I already have and they'll be rereadings.

The Latest Oz Reading

Yes, I'm still reading Oz stuff. No, I haven't had a chance to write them up much here. But now I'm on winter break, so I'm going to do my best to catch up before I have to go back to work. They're going to be all over the place, from both this most recent wave and the last one. There will be old and new books, magazines and comics, and maybe a few other surprises. It's going to get kind of random!

• 'aS 'IDnar pIn'a' Dun qon L. Frank Baum, mugh DeSDu'. When I finished the Klingon tree on Duolingo, I rewarded myself with this book. Yes, it is indeed a translation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into Klingon. Unfortuanetly my Klingon is still weak, and I can't read it well, but I do understand the sentence structure and at least some of the vocabulary. But this is going to truly be a long-term project to completely understand this one. I wish it had illustrations, and perhaps a glossary of new words created or discovered for this book, but I'm not at all unhappy having this.
• Father Goose: His Book by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by W. W. Denslow. I have a very early edition of this book, but it's over one hundred and twenty years old now, so I'd rather not handle it more than I have to. This reprint edition is terrific if I just want to read or browse these poems. It's smaller than the original, but Denslow's art still reproduces well. In fact, publisher Marcus Mébès did some light restoration where the original publication was just misaligned enough to detract. He also didn't touch a word, even though many of the depictions of peoples that were considered amusing in 1899 fall very flat today. It is a nice way to get this book. It is only lacking a learned essay about the book's background and development and its influence on the careers of both Baum and Denslaw, but that may have to wait for another edition.
• Another rare piece of Baumiana also available from Mébès and Lulu is L. Frank Baum's Juvenile Speaker, which features excerpts and extracts from many of Baum's works suitable for recitation, which is a thing people did back in the day. Although this was originally published by Reilly and Britton, permission was granted by Bobbs-Merrill and the Century Company to include works that they then controled, so this book includes Reilly and Britton's first ever publication of any material from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The star of the book may be the finale, "Prince Marvel: A Playlet for Children" which was original to this volume, and is a highly simplified dramatization of The Enchanted Island of Yew. It's a fun collection of Baum's works, and includes an afterword by Michael W. De Jesus. It's one of the rarest Baum titles today, so I greatly appreciate having access to the material here.
• Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. This reread has been a long time in coming, as I hadn't read it since college, way back in the '80s. When I discovered the juvenile literature section of my college library, one of the first itemsI found was The Phoenixand the Capret by E. Nesbit, which I had started in third grade but didn't finish then. Then I hunted down the books by Eloise. I had probably only recently read Merry Go Round in Oz, but I at least had The Forbidden Fountain of Oz, so although I knew her Oz books, this was my first exposure to the rest of her works. Later, a beat up old library copy was one of the first items I ever purchased from Amazon, but I have never read that copy because this is a new reprint, thanks to legendary Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl including it in her Book Crush Rediscovery series. Upon rereading this, I remembered bits and pieces, but for the most part this was practically a new book for me. Shannon Lightley, the daughter of an international film star and a renowned director, has just graduated from high school in rural Oregon where, as just about everywhere else she's ever lived, she never really fit in. She doesn't know what to do next, but a family friend, a probate lawyer in Portland, needs someone to investigate a strange will, and Shannon reinvents hersolf as Georgetta Smith, rents a room at a boarding house, takes a waitressing job in the diner across the street, and spends the summer getting to know the locals. In the process, she also learns more about herself, falls in love (maybe), learns more about the eccentric deceased, and touches the lives of all around her as they do the same for her. It's a great little slice-of-life story, although it is definitely set in a smaller, 1960s version of Portland. Shannon is a fascinating character, and we see a lot of changes in her through the course of her summer. I'm glad I finally got to reread it.
• I still have a lot of Eloise's books to reread, but I also have a lot of books by Rachel Cosgrove Payes to read for the first time. My latest was the only book she wrote under a pen name that wasn't a science fiction novel by "E. L. Arch". This was part five of a romance series by "Joanne Kaye", set in the New York fashion world. (Kaye was a house name, and it's entirely possible that the other books in the series were all written by different authors.) According to some collectors of Rachel's work, this is one of the hardest of her titles to track down, so when I saw a copy for sale I snatched it up. Our heroine, Suzanna Blake, is looking to expand into sports fashion, and heads to Paris to mingle and possibly find a tennis player to work with at the French Open. She becomes enmeshed with the affairs of Ginny Norris, a young prodigy who is under the thumb of her stepfather/manager. Ginny is secretly engaged, and when one of New York's most notorious tabloid gossips gets wind of this, Ginny finds she needs Suzanna as an ally. It's all pretty standard potboiler/romance stuff, and of the many romances I've read written by Rachel, this has the steamiest, most graphic descriptions of carnal acts. Between Oz, science fiction, and this, I can certainly attest to Rachel being a versatile writer! It's harmless fun, but a lot of the attitudes in this book have changed in forty years, and since Ginny is only sixteen, some of it definitely made me cringe. The characters' attitudes towards lesbians wouldn't fly these days, either.

And that's it for now, but I suspect thre will be a lot more in tte coming days.

The Latest Oz Reading

I may not have had a lot of time to write about it lately, but the reading has continued. So I thought I'd do a little catching up over the next few days.

• My rereading of the works of Eloise Jarvis McGraw continued with The Golden Goblet, which I believe is the last book she wrote set in Egypt. Ranofer dreams of becoming a goldsmith, but his embittered stepbrother, Gebu, who is in charge of him, will only let him assist in the smithy. But when Ranofer finds out that Gebu is using him to steal gold, he threatens to expose him. Gebu solves that by giving Ranofer an apprenticeship—in his own stonecutter's shop! As much as he hates stonecutting, Ranofer is pragmatic enough to go along and do his best. But when Ranofer finds out more skullduggery that Gebu is up to, he sees an opportunity to take charge of his own destiny. As always, McGraw does a terrific job of evoking Egypt by showing it to us through the characters' eyes, not ours. We see and hear and feel and smell Egypt as an Egyptian would, and our experience becomes richer for it. This is also a pretty exciting book, with all kinds of twists, but it all comes to a satisfying conclusion, as one would expect.
• I also read Eloise's only play, a little one-act called Steady, Stephanie! Ah, the affairs of the heart of a mid-twentieth century teenager! This comedy involves Stephanie, naturally, her steady boyfriend, Mike, and the new boy in town, Bronco, who Stephanie thinks is kind of exciting, until she actually gets to know him. Stephanie's kid sister, Georgia, pops in with the occasional bon mot, wry observation, or bit of advice. I tried to stage a production, or at least a reading, when I chaired the 2016 edition of OzCon International in Portland, as McGraw is from the area, but I never could get a straight answer on the rights. Apparently this was a bit of a relief to Inana McGraw, a guest that year and the artist formerly know as Lauren Lynn McGraw (and before that, Lauren McGraw Wagner). From what I remember, one of the characters is based on her, and she wasn't too wild about it.
• Another book from the '60s that I reread for the first time in decades was The Blue Emperor of Oz by Henry S. Blossom. This was one of the earliest extarcanonical Oz books, as Blossom self-published it in 1966, even though most of the Oz books, and their characters, were still under copyright at the time. I bought a copy of the 1982 second edition direct from Henry Blossom at one of my earliest Winkie Conventions, and this is only the second time I've read it. The Blue Emperor's drinking mug is in danger of being broken, which would be disastrous for the Blue Emperor. The problem is, nobody seems able to remember him! But he is Ozma's grandfather and Pomus' brother, so naturally Kabumpo gets involved early on. Meanwhile, in an Ohio pawn shop, Jam finds the head of the Gump, who assists him in getting back to Oz. Yes, many adventures and hijinks ensue before the Blue Emperor is restored, and everyone celebrates in the Emerald City before heading home again. This is a very Thompson-esque story, with visits to several "interesting" little communities, but the characters never lose track of their goal. It's a fun little romp, and now I'm just sorry it took me so long to get back to it.
• I've been wanting to read the Royal Explorers of Oz series for some time now, and finally broke down and acquired the omnibus edition of all four books in one. It's a little daunting to read them all at once, so I figure I'll just stretch this out over time by just reading one book at a time. Naturally, I started with Book I, The Voyage of the Crescent Moon. It's just a nice little sail around the continent on the Crescent Moon, with Captain Samuel Salt entertaining such visitors as honeymooning couple Maria and Derek (from The Bashful Baker of Oz), the Red Jinn, Trot and Cap'n Bill, and some visiting mermaids, among others. While they do a lot of exploring, Salt and his crew also have some tasks to perform. They then cross paths with Prince Bobo of Boboland, who is not the most diplomatic or savvy ruler (early on in the book, he manages to offend Queen Zixi of Ix by presenting her with a mirror!). But the Crescent Moon takes him home anyway, after Bobo's crew mutinies, as it's on the way to Ozamaland. That's right, in Book II, Tandy's finally going home!

Well, my pile of books I've read has gotten smaller now, but I still have a few more to go. I guess I'll just have to tell you about them later this week!

My Latest Oz Reading

Oh, so many things I've read recently, and so little time to actually write about it. But I'll try to squeeze in a few reactions over the coming days and weeks. I'll group them in loose categories, but these two aren't with anything else, so I'll just do them.

• Pharaoh is my Eloise Jarvis McGraw reread this time around. This is her only adult novel, and for good reason. It covers a lot of political wranglings in ancient Egypt during the rule of four different Pharaohs, and it is just a plain long epic. There are also some hints of adult topics, but these are touched upon rather than described explicitly. Thankfully it is also split into four parts, so I was able to read one part, take a break and read something else, read another part, take a break, and so on. Anyone who thinks gamemanship and oneupmanship is a new thing will learn otherwise when reading this book, as it keeps happening, primarily from Hatshepsut, who convinces herself that she should be Pharaoh, and does all she can to make it so, up to and including exiling her nephew, Thutmose III, to Babylon. (Looking over the biographies I've linked to, I can see that Eloise may have made up some of the events and relationships in this book, which she herself does not deny. She clearly states in her foreward that this is a novel based on what is known of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Plus, we've likely had another fifty-some years of research and discoveries since Pharaoh was published, too.) It is a sprawling, epic story, and I'm glad I reread it. But something tells me I may not get around to reading it again.
• The Wizard of MGM by A. Arnold Gillespie. If you think the name Buddy Gillespie may be familiar, you may know him as one of the chief special effects men at the M-G-M studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He started off in silent films (one of his earliest credits was the original 1925 film version of Ben Hur), and before long he was running the entire department. This was his attempt to distill all his knowledge and experience into a textbook that he hoped would benefit future filmmakers. He covers all kinds of pictures, and it might surprise some people just how many films need special effects of one sort or another. At times, it does get a little dry and technical, but Gillespie also peppers this book with all kinds of anecdotes about his long Hollywood career and the people he's worked with. With a title like this, you'd think there would be a lot about the special effects in The Wizard of Oz, but surprisingly there isn't although there is some. So this book is for the true hardcore movie and special effects fans more than Oz fans.

The Latest Oz Reading

Another dive into my now-I've-read-it pile!

• A pleasant surprise in one of our recent comic orders was The Silver Spurs of Oz by Erica Schultz and Omar Lozano. This was a surprise because neither Laura nor I could even recall seeing it or ordering it. But hey, it's Oz! At first glance, it looks like this graphic novel might have been lovingly inspired (which is a kinder way of saying "ripped off") from the comic The Legend of Oz: The Wicked West, but this is a nicely different kettle of fish blazing its own trail. In this case, Oz is a Western-themed circus, and Dorothy is going to try out as a trick rider and lasso artist with her horse, Toto. Along the way, she meets up with Crow Sorre, Tinny Woods, and Leo Raion, who are also trying out. But she also runs into Strega West, who also does trick riding, with archery, on her horse Monkey, and Strega does not take well to Dorothy. But Dorothy knows she's going to do well because she's wearing her lucky silver spurs! When they go missing, however, Dorothy's not so sure she wants to try out. This is a fun little book, part of a series retelling classic stories (Alice, Secret Agent of Wonderland looks particularly fun), and they do a nice job translating the original book (yes, the book—although the red boots Dorothy wears are probably an homage to MGM's version of her footwear) into a kid-friendly tale. Everything comes out all right in the end, and there are some fun little Easter eggs scattered throughout (Strega West's last line is especially fun).
• The other Oz-ish item that came in that comics order (one that we did expect) is Sea Sirens: A Trot & Cap'n Bill Adventure by Amy Chu and Janet K. Lee. This book has been talked about a lot in Oz circles lately, and opinions are split. It is clearly inspired by Baum's The Sea Fairies in that characters named Trot and Cap'n Bill meet up with some mermaids and are invited to visit them under the sea after magically transformed to survive underwater. What sets this apart is that Trot is a Vietnamese-American surfer girl in modern day California, and Cap'n Bill is her cat. Trot's grandfather watches over them during the day, but he's suffering the early stages of dementia and doesn't always know who anyone is or what he's doing. Once Trot and Cap'n Bill go underwater, it plays out much like the first part of the book, with everyone going on a grand tour. With no villain the equivalent of Zog in this story, there really isn't a lot of peril, but the characters are great and the art is lovely. It's not going to make Baum fans forget the original, but if it introduces today's reader to him, that's big!
• My Eloise Jarvis McGraw rereading continues wih her only non-fiction work, Techniques of Writing Fiction. This is from 1959, so it's before Merry Go Round in Oz, but she was already a well-established writer. She has all kinds of very practical advice for anyone trying to write fiction, in any genre, and I could just hear her saying a lot of it. Much of her advice probably wouldn't apply today—the market for short stories is probably very different, and I don't think anyone needs to worry about typing up a carbon copy before mailing the manuscript to the publisher—but the actual writing advice is spot on. We also get a little insight into her own life, and she talks about some of her earlier works, which means I'm now more familiar with them thanks to my rereading them (although apparently Pharaoh came out first, but that's her next book I plan to read). She even drops a mention of the Oz books. It's a tough book to track down (I remember all kinds of issues finding one, and then I was sent the wrong book!), but Eloise's fans will get a kick out of it.
• And finally, for today, a book I picked up when I went to see Wicked last year, Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked by Carol de Giere. This is the updated second edition, so there's a lot about what came after Wicked debuted, and some other projects he's been involved with as well. But this goes way back, to Schwartz's early days and how he got into the field of composing musical theater. It has some biographical elements, but the bulk is devoted to his shows, both the successes and the ones that didn't do so well—although many of the latter are finding new life in community theaters and other local productions. Because Wicked is so recent, it is better documented, and takes up about half the book. This is an essential book for Wicked fans, theater fans, and those seeking insight into the creative process.

The pile is getting considerably shorter! One more entry tomorrow should take care of things.

The Latest Oz Reading

I say "latest", but it's actually been a few weeks since I finished this pile. Other, more pressing issues have taken precedence, however, and decided to hold off. Well, I finally have a little time to spare before things get nutty again in the not-too-distant future, so I'm going to jump on in.

• I decided to skip Crown Fire in my chronological rereading of the works of Eloise Jarvis McGraw as I'd acquired it so recently and it was relatively fresh. So instead I read Moccasin Trail, the story of Jim Keath, a young nineteenth century man torn between two worlds. As a youth, he ran away from his family in Missouri to go with his uncle, a trapper who worked in the Rocky Mountains. His uncle died, and after an encounter with a bear James was taken in by a Crow tribe, who eventually adopt him and he becomes part of their family. Now grown, Jim has left the Crow and is working as a trapper himself in the Oregon territory. It's getting harder to fine animals, however, and a chance encounter leads Jim back to his family, who are on the Oregon Trail headed to the Willamette Valley. He helps them finish the journey and claim their land, but the long time away and his long hair and Crow clothes make it hard for his family to understand and trust him. Adventures ensue, of course, and Jim keeps vacillating between staying with his family and heading back to the mountains. Of course there's a happy ending and Jim finds a way to, if not exactly be part of both worlds, at least do something that works well for him. This is very much a book of its time, with all kinds of attitudes and beliefs that were actually fairly progressive in 1952, but seem a little stilted today. Jim's character and the struggles he has to deal with are well realized, however, and I found it to be an intriguing read. As a native Oregonian, Eloise knew the area well, but this was her first historical, and it feels like she did her research well, as it has a feel of truth.
• Fables, Volume 11: War and Pieces, collecting issues 70 to 75 of the comic book series. The Fables finally go on the offensive against the Adversary, and make some major inroads and win some big victories. In fact, the Adversary is even turned toward their cause. Not a lot Ozzy going on, although Bufkin shows up in a few places. Also, the thirteenth floor witches are introduced, including a young blonde girl who will later turn out to be Ozma.
• The Steam Engines of Oz, Volume 1, another comic book collection. I'd read the single issues some time ago, but this was a nice revisit. In a dystopian steampunk future Oz ruled by the heartless Tin Woodman, Victoria Wright is one of the mechanics that keeps the Emerald City in motion around Oz. She ends up helping some prisoners escape, and gets caught up in the rebellion against the Tin Woodman. This volume ends with the Tin Woodman regaining his heart and beginning the process of mending his ways, but there is still a long way to go, so I guess I'd better get volume 2 soon. Even if the setting and premise aren't all that Ozzy, it's a fun book, and Victoria is a great character.
• Finally for this round of Oz reading is Sweet Wishes from Oz by Marin Elizabeth Xiques. Wintergreen is Santa's chief elf in charge of creating new kinds of candy, but she wants a break, and asks to spend a year running a sweet shop in the Emerald City. Wintergreen's place in Santa's workshop is taken by Andy Borough, an aspiring Emerald City confectioner whose parents were knocked silly one Christmas. Things don't go well for either Wintergreen or Andy at first, and they both learn to rely on the generosity of others, as well as time and patience, to get up to speed. Both, eventually, come out in the end as stronger candy makers and more contented with their lots. It's a sweet (yes, pun intended) little story, and a nice look at life in the Emerald City, something that isn't shown enough in the Oz books. I also like how each chapter is set up by a letter from Andy to Wintergreen or vice versa, as they both support each other and send samples to each other.

And that is it for the current round of Oz reading. I hope I get to read a lot more stuff by the time the next batch of Oz books comes up!

The Latest Oz Readings

Aside from my weekly Oziana short story, I've been reading a lot of Oz and Oz-related books lately. I've just lacked the time to tell you about them! But I'm on a holiday break right now, so let's do a little catching up!

• Phoebe Daring is one of the few books by L. Frank Baum that I don't own, and hadn't even read until earlier this year. But now that it's available on Project Gutenberg, I decided to at least download it onto my Kindle and read it. It sure felt familiar, because like the many Mary Louise/Josie O'Gorman books I've read recently, it's a mystery being solved by a strong-willed young woman. One of the two lawyers in town passes away, and important papers belonging to one of the richest and most unpleasant women in town have gone missing. The lawyer's lame clerk is accused of the theft, but the Daring family and many others in town believe he didn't do it, even when some of the missing papers are found in his shack. Phoebe leads the campaign to prove his innocence. Naturally she succeeds, but it takes a lot of legwork, dot-connecting, and a couple of visits from the governor (!) before all comes to a satisfying conclusion. Baum actually writes a pretty good mystery, and the Daring twin books definitely sew the seeds for Josie O'Gorman.
• With no new Rachel Cosgrove Payes books coming into my collection soon, I decided to start a reread of Eloise Jarvis McGraw's books, starting with her very first novel, Sawdust in His Shoes. Joe Lang is a circus boy. His parents were circus performers, he's already performing as a bareback rider, and the circus is all he knows. But when an accident in the ring leaves him an orphan, he gets caught in red tape, and must stay behind in small-town Oregon while the courts decide his fate. He rebels at his treatment in the local juvenile detention facility and runs away, and is taken in by a local farm family. Without the circus, Joe doesn't know what to do, and worries about losing his skills as a bareback rider. But with the support and aid of the Dawson family, he learns to balance all parts of his life and get back on his feet again. This is a book that is very much of its time (the book was first published in 1950), and is an extremely promising start to her career. I was also amused at all of the local Oregon place names and landmarks, as I've been in that area and know some of them. Now their all part of the greater Portland-Eugene urban area, and is all well developed, but back then it was mostly rural. So seeing it like it used to be through Eloise's eyes was a lot of fun.
• Fables, Volume 10: The Good Prince. Flycatcher, the former Frog Prince, Regains his memories of the Fabled Lands, and decides it's time to use his knowledge and powers to strike back at the Adversary by carving out a portion of the lands he's conquered and forming a new kingdom. This was an exciting and well-drawn out story, and Fly does a great job. For Ozzy content, we see a bit of Bufkin in the early chapters as he takes on a new role in the administration of Fabletown.
• The Sawhorse of Oz by Harry Mongold. This was one of the first books outside of the Famous Forty ever published, and I bought it when it first came out in 1981. I'm not sure why this one is named after the Sawhorse, since he doesn't even show up until halfway through the book, and doesn't really do that much in it. The story focuses on Krook, an ambitious Gillikin farmer who feels he deserves so much more. He finds a mysterious device that answers questions, so he decides to try to conquer Oz. He finds he needs a silver chest being held in the Tin Woodman's castle. But he keeps asking the wrong questions, and ends up traveling with Dorothy, Betsy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman. They have adventures that don't quite seem to go anywhere, and then Krook is finally stopped and dealt with. At the time it was published, this was exciting, as it was all so new. But now, it just feels fractured and overextended.

I'm working on another book now, and there's one more in the pipeline, so there will be one or two more of these reports before I move on to other things.

The Latest Oz Reading

I just finished another book in my current spate of Oz-related reading. That book was Techniques of Writing Fiction by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, the final piece in my McGraw collection. Yes, I now have every book she wrote, and this one tells you how she did it. She gives some very good, common sense advice for how to write fiction, with all kinds of tips and tricks, most of which still hold up well today. Having talked with her a few times before she died in 2000, and read her articles in The Baum Bugle about how she wrote, I could clearly hear her style and sense in her writing, which is witty and charming and folksy, just like Eloise. Even though this was four years before the publication of Merry Go Round in Oz, there's a passing mention of Oz in her tale of how she first learned how to tell a story to a young audience. She also brings up examples from her earlier works, most of which I recognized (but now I'm starting to think that I should go back and reread some of her books). There's a lot of talk about writing for magazines that isn't terribly germane today, and absolutely nothing about using a word processor — plenty about making copies on your typewriter with carbon paper, however — but if you're a fan of her work, or just interested in getting some straight advice on writing from a good one, even though this was early in her career, you may just want to get this one.

The comics order also came yesterday, and since there were only two Oz comics, I read them both right away:

• Fables #139. Part 1 of a two-art story about Boy Blue's band going back to the Fable version of Scotland. No Oz in it, however.
• Tales from Oz #3. Okay, let's see how badly Zenescope messes up the Scarecrow's origin. (At least it can't be much worse than the origin revealed in The Royal Book of Oz.) Hmm, intriguing, and more in keeping with the Scarecrow's origin in the musical version of Wicked. Bartleby is a good man who has the trust of the people of Oz, so when he is summoned by the Wicked Witches of the East and West, it is to recruit him as an ambassador. The witches give him their word that all they ask for is loyalty, and that the people and their lands and livelihoods will not be harmed. Bartleby is successful with most (but not all) groups, then returns home to find that there is a reason they're called wicked witches. It does not go well for Bartleby or much of anyone else, including his fiancée Tessa, and the Scarecrow is the result. This book also contains the final part of "Good Dog", the story of what Toto was doing for much of the main Oz miniseries. One extra special plus to this issue is that Zenescope was selling an exclusive edition just for Emerald City Comicon while I was there last week, so I now have my first limited variant cover of a Zenescope Oz comic.

I'm working on a bit of non-fiction right now, and it's a little slower going than I'd like, but I should be able to review it some time next week at the latest.

The Latest Oz-Related Reading

I'm not in one of my usual Oz reading cycles right now, but I had to read this one for a very special reason. In fact, I had intended it as part of my last cycle, but it didn't arrive in time. It seems that the first copy the place sent me got lost in the mail, so they hunted down another one! So, what book is this? I finally found an affordable copy of Crown Fire by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. This is one of only two of Eloise's books I didn't have, and the last fiction book of hers. (Yes, that means the only one I'm missing now is Techniques of Fiction Writing, which seems to have jumped in price in recent years.) This is one of her earliest books, having been published in 1951, a dozen years before Merry Go Round in Oz. It's the story of Chip Ladou, a hotheaded young French-Canadian lumberjack working in the Pacific Northwest somewhere. (The nearby town is the fictitious Port Chance. There are enough references to local landmarks that it's pretty clear it's in Washington or Oregon. Since Eloise lived in the Portland area munch of her life, and most of her modern fiction is set there, this is not a risky assumption.) His temper takes him too far one day, and he walks out of camp before he can be kicked out. Logging jobs are getting hard to come by, however, so he settles in Port Chance, returns to high school, and gets a job as a dishwasher at the local soda shop. He gets in trouble for fighting on the first day of school, but he also realizes he has friends and allies, and a teacher takes an interest in him and starts teaching him how to box. It's a real little slice-of-life story, and Chip has a lot of growing up to do over the course of the book. Of course, set in a lumbering town and with a name like Crown Fire, you'd expect the climax to be a forest fire, which it is. I enjoyed the story as a piece of Americana and an example of Eloise's work, but if you're just an Oz fan, you don't need to hunt this down for your collection.