Product Description

Join the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow as they journey across the fantastic magical Land of Oz in search of the Tin Woodman's long-lost sweetheart. In a series of adventures sure to thrill Oz fans both old and new, these beloved friends face such challenges as a selfish giantess and a group of quarrelsome dragons--all to fulfill a promise made long ago to a beautiful Munchkin girl.

The Tin Woodman sits on the glittering tin throne of his splendid tin castle, ruling the Winkle Country of the Land of Oz with the help of his best friend, the Scarecrow. All is peaceful and well, but when a young wanderer named Woot asks the Tin Woodman how he came to be made of tin, the emperor recalls his days as a flesh-and-blood woodchopper and his love for Nimmie Amee, a Munchkin girl so fair that the sunsets blushed when they fell upon her.

The three quickly decide to set out on a daring quest to reunite the Tin Woodman with his lost love and ask Nimmie Amee to be Empress of the Winkie Country. During their travels, they battle dragons and loons, a mighty sorceress, and an all-too-hungry beast called the Hippo-gy-raf. Luckily, they are joined in their search by their old friend Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, and are aided by Dorothy and Princess Ozma--the powerful fairy ruler of the Land of Oz. But just when they think their troubles are over and their quest is complete, they discover a surprise that leaves all of them truly astounded!

This deluxe edition of the rare first edition features all twelve of Oz artist John R. Neill's beautiful color plates, along with his nearly one hundred black-and-white drawings, making this a book sure to be treasured for years to come.

In a series of adventures sure to thrill OZ fans both old and new, the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow journey across the magical Land of Oz in search of the Tin Woodman's long-lost sweetheart, a beautiful Munchkin girl.This deluxe edition of the rare first edition features all twelve of Oz artist John R. Neill's beautiful color plates, along with his nearly one hundred black and white drawings, and is a great way to celebrate the upcoming centenary of Oz!

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142464 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-01
• Released on: 1999-05-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From the Inside Flap
Woot the Wanderer and the Scarecrow help the Tin Woodman find his old love, Nimmie Amee, suffering the ignominious enchantments of Mrs. Yoop's yookoohoo magic along the way.

About the Author
L[yman] Frank Baum, born in Chittenango, New York, in 1856, tried his hand at various professions, including that of newspaper editor, crockery salesman, axle-grease manufacturer, and chicken farmer, until, at the age of forty, he discovered his true talent--the writing of fantastic tales. His most famous work, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was published in 1900 and was followed by thirteen more full-length Oz novels, six short "Little Wizard Stories," and numerous other fantasies and pseudonymous books. In 1910, he moved to Hollywood with his wife and four sons. There they built "Ozcot," the home in which Baum lived until his death in 1919.

John R. Neill was born in Philadelphia in 1877. Beginning his career as a staff illustrator for the Philadelphia Inquirer, he later worked for the New York Evening Journal, and the Philadelphia North American. In 1904, at the age of twenty-six, Neill received his first major book assignment, as illustrator for The Marvelous Land of Oz. From then until his death in 1943, Neill would illustrate over forty Oz books, including three he wrote himself. Today, his fabulous illustrations are synonymous with Oz.

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Customer Reviews

a great book to read to younger kids
This is a great bedtime reading book for a younger child. The story moves along at a good clip, the characters are interesting and weird, the language used is within the range of kids as young as four, there are lots of really nice illustrations, and the book is a high quality product (hardback with dust jacket). The book is also fairly long, so the story can play itself out over days or weeks (assuming you read one chapter per night). This is the sort of book your kid will keep and pass on to their children.

"I must have stood there longer than I had imagined."
The Tin Woodman of Oz (book 12)is easily the most surreal of the Oz books. While they all have a pretty healthy dose of strange locked inside their pages, this book is so odd that I can distinctly remember that it disturbed me as a child. It was not one of the Oz books that I returned to over and over. Reading it again made it clear just what was so strange.

The main idea of The Tin Woodman of Oz is to explore the back story of Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman. As you may or may not know or remember, Nick Chopper started life as an ordinary sort of flesh-and-blood fellow who made a living cutting down trees. Unfortunately for him, he fell in love with Nimmie Amee-- the servant girl of the Wicked Witch of the East. In order to stop him from taking her hired help away, the witch enchants his axe so that he cuts himself every time he tries to chop down a tree. Bit by bit, Nick Chopper removes his own limbs with the enchanted axe. Fortunately for him, a tinsmith named Ku Klip is able to replace each limb with a tin replacement. In the end, there is nothing left of poor Nick Chopper except the tin replacement parts. Unfortunately, Ku Klip had forgotten to give him a heart. He rusts in the forest, and once Dorothy finds him then everything after that is history?

Or is it? In the opening of book 12, a small boy named Woot the Wanderer appears at the court of the Tin Man's castle in Winkie country. Why? he asks, has the now-emperor of the Winkies never returned to find his true love Nimmie Amee and make her the queen? Excellent question, it appears. The group sets off on their adventure to find the lovely Miss Amee and offer her the man of her dreams who is now restored.

As in all Oz books, there are a great variety of subplots. Many in this book focus on the disturbing notion that Oz folks never grow older-- babes in the cradle stay babes, etc. That's all I have to say about the digressions along the way. You'll have to read it yourself if you want to find out about Mrs. Yoop and the Invisible Country and all the other little side adventures.

I want to focus on the serious weirdness in the book, the main plot about Nimmee Amee. I won't go into all the details, but suffice to say that it emerges that there is a second Tin Man-- this one a Tin Soldier. He got into the exact same plight as Nick Chopper for the exact same reason-- the love of Miss Nimmie Amee. One of the things that you probably didn't need to know about Oz is that if a person gets their leg or arm chopped off, then those parts remain alive. And those living parts are able to be glued back together to make another living creature. So if you take the flesh parts of Nick Chopper and mix 'em with the flesh parts of the Tin Soldier then you get an answer which turns out to be-- you can probably guess it without me providing a spoiler. Just as disturbing as you can imagine.

All surrealism aside, The Tin Woodman of Oz is far from the strongest in the series. Woot the Wanderer is a kind of combination of Button Bright and Ojo the Unlucky, and not terribly interesting as a character in his own right. The little digressive vignettes are more digressive than usual. The only really bright spot was that Polychrome makes an appearance here-- she remains one of my favorite Oz characters.

A should-read if you would like to get the really odd side of Oz.

Two...count 'em Two...Tin Men!
This book, for some reason, was one of the hardest for me to lay my hands on as a child. As an avid Oz, this was pure torture. I had always loved the Tin Woodman, so I was desperate to read a book dedicated to him. Finally, on my 11th birthday, I was given the book by a friend of mine...and, after all the anticipation, I am happy to report that the story did not disappoint. I was immediately captivated by the cover of the book, for--what was this--TWO tin men? That was all the encouragement I needed to immediately abandon reality and plunge into this book. Well, after reading this tale again as an adult, The Tin Woodman of Oz stands up as one of Baum's best. In a somewhat rare turn for the author, he gazes back upon a past book of Oz to explore the history of one of his all-time favorite characters--and he does his usual marvelous job. My favorite scene is the adventure with the giantess, Yoop, but this adventure really starts to thump like the heart of our favorite tin man when our heroes meet none other than the Tin Soldier. This is probably the darkest of all of the Oz books; after all, Baum describes the building of a man from the discarded parts of another! But it's always Baum's charming style that wins over and, somehow, he can handle what seems to be a macabre subject matter in a delightful fashion. As a boy, it was a great pleasure to read a book that starred an all male trio (very unusual for Baum) and I'm sure this contributed to making this Oz adventure one of my favorites of the series.