Review: The Lost King of Oz by Ruth Plumley Thompson

Title: The Lost King of Oz
Author: Ruth Plumly Thompson
Summary: This story tells the tale of the King of Oz, who was deposed when the Wizard of Oz took over as ruler, and of the witch Mombi, who we first meet in The Land of Oz.

The Good: This is an entertaining story, full of rollicking adventure. It’s a quick, fun read and I enjoyed it a lot. Especially the sections with Scraps the Patchwork Girl in them. In this book, Scraps definitely plays the part of the queen’s fool, and does it well.

The Bad: Well, this is definitely Oz fanfic, even if it was authorized by the original author. I don’t remember if I’ve read one of the books Thompson wrote before. If I have, it would have been when I was a kid and wasn’t distracted by stylistic differences. It’s hard to pinpoint what didn’t work for me except to say that I never felt condescended to when I read Baum’s books, and Thompson definitely condescends a bit to her audience.

Grade: Since this was definitely an entertaining read, despite my problems with it (which amount to “this isn’t L. Frank Baum”) I’m going to give it a B.