Product Description

Dorothy and Toto are off again on an exciting adventure down The Road to Oz!

In order to help the lovable, ever-wandering Shaggy Man, Dorothy and Toto must journey through magical and mysterious lands. Soon the three are joined by a lost lad named Button-Bright and the beautiful young Polychromethe Rainbow's Daughter. With magic at work and danger about, these new friends must journey through cities of talking beasts, across the Deadly Desert into the Truth Pond, and through many other strange and incredible places before they can reach the Emerald City.

Along the way, Dorothy and her companions encounter a whole new assortment of fantastic and funny characters--the crafty King Dox of Foxville, the magical donkey King Kik-a-bray, the terrible bigheaded Scoodlers, and Johnny Dooit (who can do anything)--along with old friends Jack Pumpkinhead, Tik-tok, Billina, and, of course, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the wonderful Wizard himself.

The Road to Oz is the fifth adventure in the magical Land of Oz. For the first time since the original 1909 edition, this stunning new facsimile edition illustrates Dorothy's fantastic adventures on different colors of paper reflecting where she and her friends are on the road to Oz. Featuring all of John R. Neill's 126 striking pen-and-ink drawings, this handsome deluxe edition is one to be treasured for years to come.

Afterword by Peter Glassman. This deluxe facsimile of the fifth Oz adventure reunites Dorothy and her friends for Princess Ozma's glorious birthday party. For the first time since the original 1909 edition, the 126 masterful illustrations are printed on colored papers, exactly as the author intended. A Books of Wonder Classic.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #148958 in Books
• Published on: 1991-04-24
• Released on: 1991-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 267 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4-By L. Frank Baum. Narrated by Flo Gibson.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
This book is in Electronic Paperback Format. If you view this book on any of the computer systems below, it will look like a book. Simple to run, no program to install. Just put the CD in your CDROM drive and start reading. The simple easy to use interface is child tested at pre-school levels.

Windows 3.11, Windows/95, Windows/98, OS/2 and MacIntosh and Linux with Windows Emulation.

Includes Quiet Vision's Dynamic Index. the abilty to build a index for any set of characters or words.

This Electronic Paperback is illustrated.

This Electronic Paperback is read aloud by an actor.

From the Inside Flap
Book 5 of L. Frank Baum's immortal OZ series, in whcih Dorothy and the Shaggy Man inexplicably find themselves in Oz, where they meet Polychrome, the abandoned daughter of the Rainbow, and a host of others on their way to Ozma's lavish birthday party.

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Customer Reviews

The fifth Oz book... by no means the best
"The Road to Oz" is the fifth book in what is perhaps the greatest fantasy series of all time.. however, it's not really a book I'd recommend to show people how wonderful the series really is. At this point it seems that Baum was getting a little weary, and it shows, as this book has almost no discernable plot or conflict at all. Dorothy, again, gets lost in a fairyland, and again makes her way to the Emerald City, assembling a small band of strange and endearing characters along the way -- the same as she'd done three times before. What made this a weak entry is that there was no sense of urgency here. Dorothy was never worried, she knew as soon as she found Ozma she'd have a way home, there was no villain... by the time she made it to the Emerald City the book had been liberally dotted with references to how everyone in Oz loved one another and nobody was ever mean -- unless, of course, you're a wicked witch, but they had both long been vanquished at this point.

The land of Oz is built on strange situations and characters, but also on story. In the original "Wizard of Oz," Dorothy and her friends faced the witch, hoping to send her home. In "The Land of Oz," Pip had to deal with an entire invasion of the Emerald City. In "Ozma of Oz" there was the wonderful story of the rescue of the Royal Family of Ev.

By book four, "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz," Baum seemed to have run out of plots and contented himself, in these few volumes, with just bringing in new characters and not bothering to craft a story around them. In book six, "The Emerald City of Oz," he took the step of placing Dorothy in Oz permanently, which was probably the best thing he'd ever done, because later volumes no longer needed to concern themselves with finding ways to get to Oz and just told really wonderful fantasy stories. ("Tik-Tok of Oz" is still my favorite in the series.")

The Oz books, in toto (no pun intended), are wonderful for people of any age, but this installment is really for completists only.

Weakest of the series, but still enjoyable
Everyone has their favorite Oz novel, but of the 14 which Baum wrote, this one is, in my opinion, the weakest. Unlike other Oz books there is little in the way of plot. This makes reading it uncomfortable as the reader spends most of the book waiting for somehting to happen, only to realize at the end that nothing happened. Also, I loved the tense yet humorus situations Baum masterfully set up in the other books. I rorared with laughter in the second book when Jelia Jamb "translated" for the scarecrow and Jack Pumpkinhead. The trial from book four and Dorothy's capture by the people of Utensia in book six also made me laugh while also clutching the book with fascination. There are no comperable scenes in "Road to Oz" and this is sorely missed.

However, the book is still worth reading. For one thing it introduces the Shaggy Man, who proves to be a most enjoyable character. The Shaggy Man carries a device called the love magnet, which causes people who see it to love him. This subplot introduces a very mature and though-provoking conflict. Is it right to enchant people into loving? Is this a power that one person, even a well-intentioned one, can hold alone? What are the drawbacks of being loved by everyone? This subplot held my interest and made the story readable.

Finally, there are cameo appearances in the end from many of Baum's non-Oz books. Clearly these appearances are a plug for his other works. One cannot fault him too much for doing this though. Baum wrote many fine books which had nothing to do with Oz, and this needs to be remembered.

Despite this book's weakness, it did not signal the decline of the series. Most of the later books were quite good, and I found "The Tin Woodsman of Oz" (number 12) to be one of the best. Keep reading, as altogether there is nothing like the Oz series.

More Outlandish Adventures!
I've already praised the quixotic Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Now I'll move to the outrageous The Road to Oz, where Dorothy Gale is sent on her way to Oz literally by coming to a fork in a road, this time with Toto again. She meets up with the Shaggy Man, and endearing homeless man who relishes his shags, bobs, shreds and general crustiness. She also encounters the quite idiotic Button-Bright, a charming but stupid little boy, and last but not least, she meets Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter. Polychrome is so very Oz, and yet she's one of the sky fairies, in her rainbow gown and her delicate features (she only eats mist-cakes, dew-drops, and cloud-buns); but she grieves being separated from her father the rainbow. The journey takes them on a road past bizarre creatures (a fellow who can only spout music like an instrument, cannot simply talk), the hilarious feud between Foxes and Donkeys, the creepy Scoodlers, among other notables, to lead them to Oz. The whole dangerous, strange mission was set forth by the Queen of Oz, Ozma, to celebrate her birthday. We get to meet Queen Zixi of Ix, Santa Claus, and many other wonderful people and creatures that welcome all of us back to Oz. A truly fantastical, funny, Ozzy book.