The Latest Oz Reading

And by latest I mean some time in the past year or so. Hey, as I said last time, I may be keeping up with the reading, but not doing so well with telling you about it!

• "No Place Like Oz", the first story in the collection Dorothy Must Die Storise by Danielle Paige. I may have finished off the main line of Dorothy Must Die novels, but Paige also wrote a number of novellas on the periphery of the main series. (How many novellas? Enough that this is only the first of three volumes!) "No Place Like Oz" sees Dorothy, now back in Kansas, wondering what her life may have been like if she'd stayed in Oz. For her sixteenth birthday, she receives a gift of a mysterious red pair of shoes. Sure enough, Glinda sent those shoes, and they transport Dorothy back to Oz, along with Toto, Uncle Henry, anh Aunt Em. But although it's been only two ears for Dorothy, much more time has passed in Oz, and she doesn't know how to cope. The Scarecrow says Glinda has been missing for ten years, and Dorothy doesn't trust the new queen, Ozma. Ozma's not too wild about her, either, and decides to bring the Gale farmhouse to Oz to transport them all back. Angry, Dorothy uses some magic she's picked up to cause the house to land on Ozma. But Ozma is protected, and it instead lands on Uncle Henry and Aunt Em! Needless to say, Dorothy is not happy with this development—but that's where this particular story ends. It does a god job of setting up the series, and creating the circumstances under which Dorothy will eventually take over Oz in novels. And if this is your first exposure to Danielle Paige's version of Oz, yes, it's definitely not like the Oz that L. Frank Baum first imagined!
• Next comes The Spelling Bee of Oz by Robin Hess. This is a book I've known about for years, as Robin is a long-time friend, and he read portions of this at some of our local Oz events when I was a kid. Elizabeth "Zeebee" Warren is from California, Amal is from Somalia, but they both end up in Oz on an adventure involving a revolution by the cats of Oz. The Nomes and, of course, lots of Oz celebrities also get involved. It's been a while, so I don't remember much else, but it was fun and Ozzy. Having a character from the outside world but not the United States was a fun addition, however. Naturally, it all ends well, and the Spelling Bee, who can both spell well and cast magic spells, is a fun new character.
• Finally (for now) comes Yookoohoos of Oz by Paul Dana, continuing his saga of Button-Bright, Ojo, and the Yookoohoos. Since this is part of a series, I don't want to give away too much, but there's a whole mess of Yookoohoos, and some of their secrets that even they have forgotten about are uncovered.

And there is a lot more to come!