But you should read it... because it might be the best Oz book ever written!
"The Wicked Witch of Oz" is the forty-ninth book in the Oz series originally created by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Rachel Cosgrove Payes, and it was published in 1993. Feels like we're getting closer to modern day here, doesn't it? At this point, Oz is nearly 100 years old, and it will be by the next one.
In many ways, this book is the sequel to "The Hidden Valley of Oz" which came out way back in 1951. Written by the same person too. It once again stars Percy the giant rat, and that is pretty much enough to make me love this book already. Percy is awesome. He is sunshine in a rat.
But it's not just Percy that makes this book so great. It is the revival of the fairly unknown Wicked Witch of the South, named Singra, that also makes this book amazing. She is great too, even though she is a very bad person. I found her wickedness to be about equally as entertaining as Percy's rattiness.
Singra had been asleep for 100 years and was woken up by a clock with a 100 year long alarm setting. The book even cleverly demonstrates this with illustrations showing the clock ticking down for a while before the story ultimately begins. These pictures are by Eric Shanower, by the way, who may actually be the best illustrator of the whole series.
Singra wants revenge against Dorothy for killing her two sisters (one by house and the other by a bucket of water), but she accidently turns Dorothy's friend Trot into a piece of cheese. This leads to a great quest headed by Percy the rat to find this cheese and bring her back to be unenchanted.
Along the way, they meet Leon the Neon who is a man made out of neon lights. He's pretty cool too! He sort of flashes as he talks. His body is based on an old cartoon gag where someone gets electrocuted and turns into neon lights. I didn't mind it at all. He's cute.
Percy's cleverness and ratty ingenuity is what saves the day in this one, and I can't express enough how much I love him. He is actually my favorite Oz character. It's a shame that he only seems to end up in two books. He's just so charming. And yes, I admit to being biased towards rat characters, but come on! He's so much fun!
I absolutely recommend "The Wicked Witch of Oz" to anyone interested in the Oz stories. I would also recommend "The Hidden Valley of Oz" as well if you want to see Percy's origin story. There needs to be more books about him. He's wonderful.
This blog was written on August 2, 2023.
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A rat as the hero? Interesting. They are loathed in reality so vilified in fiction, but not in this story. The villain is endearing yet villainous? The best of bad in a story, indeed. Just by these two things I can see depth. Of course there is more to the story.
ReplyDeleteWell they turned something that is usually portrayed as dark and sinister into sort of a friendly and candid personality.
DeleteI would have never guessed your favorite character would have been a rat...haha but seriously it's awesome that they made the character endearing. And who better to find a piece of cheese than a clever rat! Singra sounds like a great villain, but I'd be grumpy too if I was waken from a 100 year nap.
ReplyDeleteReally good stuff. I am sad there aren't anymore Oz books with him in it.
DeleteIt is good when a villain is entertaining. Since the story tends to focus on their defeat, it is beneficial to get to know them first. This often helps to make the work more compelling.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the story happily focused on her. She was pretty awesome.
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