Fairy Tale Spotlight: Speedy in Oz [Book Review]

[Contains spoilers for a book that nobody reads anymore.]

Whoa! I did not see this one coming! "Speedy in Oz" is the 28th book in the Oz series started by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson and published in 1934. And despite all expectations, this may actually be her best one yet.

The book sees the return of Speedy, the American boy from "The Yellow Knight of Oz." He it shot over by a geyser while investigating dinosaur bones with his Uncle Billy. The geyser sends both him and those bones to a floating island called Umbrella Island which is presently going through a bit of an emergency involving a giant.

This story barely has anything to do with Oz until the end. I never worry about that. Baum did it too. Some of these books have more to do with the outreaches of Fairyland than Oz in general. Umbrella Island is an entire island that can fly around by use of a giant magical umbrella planted in the middle. An entire civilization lives here. The author goes out of her way to explain how it all works, and I was pleasantly surprised with how sensible she was with something so fantastic.

On the latter note, Ruth is not commonly known for explaining anything at all. She just says what happens. This was a refreshing change and one of the many reasons this book is superior to all her other written works.

So, the island accidently bumped into the head of a giant named Loxo. As recompense, he required the king's daughter be handed over to be his tiny (or regular sized) slave. They agreed to it but bought some time in order to train her, but it was really in the hopes that their wizard, named Waddy, could figure a way out of the deal.

Enter Speedy and a magical walking, and talking pile of dinosaur bones named Terrybubble. Instantly, they become the talk of the whole island. Speedy is a brave and interesting boy who likes girls, namely princesses. Terrybubble is huge and ugly, yet he is as innocent as a puppy. He strives to be the best and most loyal companion Speedy could ever have. The contrast between the dinosaur's looks and his personality is what makes him so endearing and wonderful.

Speedy's interest in women is a major shift from most of Ruth's boy characters. Usually women frustrate them, and they often would rather be around other male characters. But Speedy is a heterosexual through and through. He even often thinks about marrying girls. Many on the island assume he will come back someday to marry the princess of this story. This one quality makes Speedy different then all the other boys who have traveled to Oz.

The workings of the umbrella that causes Umbrella Island to fly was fascinating. And it even had settings that could put up protective shields which were not perfect. They had weaknesses which were important within the plot of the book. The controls for the island and how they worked was well addressed and made me wish I could have been there to operate it myself. Seriously, every detail of this story was planned out and delivered with precision. I was not expecting this. Her last story was good but it was nowhere near this level of quality.

Although I won't spoil the entire ending, I do want to mention one thing. After the plot was resolved, Speedy had the option of taking Terrybubble back to America, but that could cause the dinosaur to become lifeless again... and likely just end up in a boring museum. For this reason, Speedy choose to quietly slip away and allow his dinosaur friend to remain on Umbrella Island so that he could be much happier. There was only one very sad problem.

Terrybubble had lost Speedy and had no idea what happened to him. He spent long hours on the edge of the island looking for his old friend to whom he would always be loyal. Terrybubble was the very model of a loyal dog-like companion. He was naïve to a fault and never could quite get over the fact that he wasn't very smart. That last little moment where you see him sadly looking out for Speedy really struck hard. He just could not understand that Speedy had done him a favor. The boy wanted his dinosaur friend to live a good life rather than coming back home where he would return to the grave. Brilliant.

Throughout this story, the plot is hard driven towards the end. It is absolutely worth the read, and may actually be the best Oz book up to that point. It even goes right up against some of Baum's better stories. As an interesting caveat, "Speedy in Oz" was the 14th Oz book of Ruth Plumly Thompson. Before Baum died, he managed to also write 14 Oz books. It seems that 14 is the magic number because she finally wrote a good one, and it is my sincere hope that she kept it up. What a fine piece of literature this was!

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