Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Yellow Knight of Oz [Book Review]

[Spoilers ahead for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"The Yellow Knight of Oz" is the 24th book in the long running Oz series started by L. Frank Baum. It was published in 1930 and written by Ruth Plumly Thompson who was doing all the Oz books by that point and for quite a while after. I have literally, by this point, read up to this book. I'm just that nuts about Oz.

I was particularly interested in this one for years, because I had a feeling that the staring role would go to one of my all time favorite Oz characters, that being Sir Hokus of Pokes. I was right. This is his crowning moment in the series. But why not call it "Sir Hokus of Oz?" Well, the author knew what she was doing apparently, because it made complete sense by the end of it.

Sir Hokus is a funny sort of knight that obsesses with knightly things such as saving a damsel in distress, working for a king, or slaying monsters. His past is a bit confusing, and he did not remember half of it. This book was intended to explain his origins far better than when he was introduced.

It starts with Sir Hokus getting tired of spending all of his days surrounded by damsels within the Emerald City who clearly were not in distress or in need of saving at all. And so he declares that he must go venturing forth in search of new adventures. Much to his dismay, all the women love the idea and want to join him on his quest. Here we have a poor fellow that just wants to strike out on his own, and he can't even have that. So he does the right thing and just slips away while all the girls are preparing themselves.

Now, I don't want to spoil everything, because I like to keep these blogs short, but this book leads into an adventure that is nothing short of a fantastical knightly adventure that even ends with two restored ancient kingdoms in Oz, the takedown of an evil villain, and a marriage--an actual marriage between a knight and the daughter of a king. It's all contained within this book, and I loved almost every moment of it.

I had a few complaints. The first is the usual Thompson fair, which is that she includes these random encounters that have nothing to do with the plot. It was, perhaps, not as bad as usual. She limited it down to a single encounter with a bunch of swamp living people who walk around on stilts. The other problem I had was with a court jester character that went by the name of Peter Pun. The previous book had a character from America named Peter, and she really should have given the jester a different name. It seemed even to cause her some confusion in writing it because, once Peter Pun was announced, she kept referring to the original Peter as "that boy from Philadelphia." Bad form.

Speaking of boys from America, there was a new American traveler, and much to my surprise, it was another boy. His name was Speedy, and he was the adopted child of one Uncle Billy, a great inventor. He ends up accidently making his way to Oz and helps out in the knightly quest of Sir Hokus. Hilariously, he finds the damsel first and sort of just treats her as some sort of pet or novelty that he wants to take back to America with him. I thought that was cute.

I'm happy to say that this story not only features Sir Hokus as the primary character, but he ends up being one of the most honorable and wonderful people ever seen in Oz. There was an interesting test where he had to choose between three rings. One ring leads to a poisonous death, another leads to a monster that will likely kill him, and the third leads to the hand of a beautiful princess. So it was not so much a test of skill as it was a test of chance. All the other knights did not like those odds and would not even bother with it. Sir Hokus, however, was willing to chance the poison and thought he might be able to slay the monster. And so he bravely chose, and chose wisely. Interestingly, the other two rings did nothing at all. It was simply a test to see if he was brave enough to take the test at all, and Sir Hokus was the only one that would.

Lastly, here is a fun, little factoid. "The Yellow Knight of Oz" was the only Ruth Plumly Thompson Oz book to be turned into a stage play. It ran in 1963 and features a mix of live actors and puppets. I would have honestly loved to have seen it!

If you enjoy daring tales of knights and would like a fun Ozian twist to it, "The Yellow Knight of Oz" is well worth your time. Although I had some problems with it, the good greatly outweighed the bad. I recommend it wholeheartedly!

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