Baum-Block

Books read: 3

Title: The Land of Oz

Author: L. Frank Baum

Status: Book 2 in the Oz series. This is my 1985 Del Rey copy, with ‘Katy Hensley’ written in marker along the edge (That’s really how I spelled it when I was 6-8). The Land of Oz features new characters like Tip, Jack Pumpkinhead, and the Saw-Horse in addition to the familiar faces of Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. Emerald City is taken over by an army of girls, the leader of which is named Jinjur (what a great name). Baum was a suffragist so the handling of the female take over isn’t completely backwards - though though men and women do have their clearly assigned gender roles and qualities. I’m pretty sure I’ve read this book and its companion more often than I’ve read The Wizard of Oz.

Result: I already own all the Oz stories in Kindle format, so this one can go to a new home.

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Title: Ozma of Oz

Author: L. Frank Baum

Status: Book 3 in the Oz series. Probably my favorite of the lot. (After about book 5 it starts to get a bit tedious, honestly). Dorothy returns to Oz with a new friend (a chicken) and meets up with new friends and old. When I was little, I thought the lunch and dinner pails were the best thing ever. That and the Nome King’s bric-a-brac rooms. As an adult I realize how much more satire and word play is in these stories. (I guess I was just too fixated on the food when I was little.)

Result: See previous.

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Title: Weetzie Bat

Author: Francesca Lia Block

Status: I first heard about this slim book in a review in the greatest of all magazines, Sassy. (More about Sassy when we get to non-fiction). The story is 88 pages long, and can be read in about 20 minutes. When I first read it (in the very early 90s), it was unlike any other book I had read. Part punk, part magical realism, it informed my notion of what LA was like until I went there 15+ years later. It also had a major impact on my ideas about writing. As a tween (before the term tween was coined), I thought the description of Weetzie and My Secret Agent Lover Man’s first kiss was the most wonderful thing I had ever seen.

“A kiss about apple pie a la mode with the vanilla creaminess melting in the pie heat. A kiss about chocolate when you haven’t eaten chocolate in a year. A kiss about palm trees speeding by, trailing pink clouds when you drive down the Strip sizzling with champagne. A kiss about spotlights fanning the sky and the swollen sea spilling like tears all over your legs.” (Block, 37)

Result: This one is a keeper