Fairy Tale Spotlight: King Kojo [Book Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"King Kojo" is the seventy-third book in the Oz series originally created by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson and published in 1938. As far as I know, it doesn't really have anything to do with Oz or any of Baum's works. It's just on the list, but it fits right in with the Ozian style.

"King Kojo" is a story about the titular king and his adventures within the small country of Oh-Go-Wan. Yes, that's what the place is called. I'm not joking, but this book sure is. Just about every single thing that happens has some sort of joke meaning to it. I'm not really complaining, by the way.

King Kojo shares the spotlight with his court jester, Ketch, and his page, Pogo. There is also a living giantess made entirely out of wood named Dorcas. These four are really the main characters and are featured in almost every chapter in some way. I'll try and go over them one at a time.

The king himself is a merry old soul who is remarkably cheerful and benevolent. He believes in the good of humanity and always tries to help his people out whenever he can. Literally, I would love to have him as king. He has very good policies and does a good job managing the kingdom's finances. What he struggles with is adversity. He tends to lock up a little bit, but he never totally gives up. He just sometimes seems like he doesn't know what to do. All said though, he handles things well enough.

Ketch the jester is the story's cynic. He does not believe in anyone but Kojo. He is always advising Kojo not to be so charitable with random people, because it may either be self-serving or some sort of trap. More often than not, Ketch is actually 110% correct. This worried me because I did not really mind how Kojo treated people, and I didn't want him to become a cynic. However Kojo stays the way he is, if maybe a little more cautious as time goes by.

Pogo the king's page has a sort of young enthusiasm that really impresses me. He comes across as a young boy, but he is far from stupid. He is really good at planning things out when the king can't seem to figure out what to do. He is often seen working with Ketch to formulate plots to either save the king or the kingdom in general. A really cool guy.

Dorcas is the wooden giantess. She was actually the figurehead to a sunken ship that magically came to life. She acts as sort of a guardian of the country and spends her time watching the coastline for trouble. (Yes, Oh-Go-Wan is a coastal kingdom.) Her whole story is sweet. Although magically alive and beloved by everyone, she often feels lonely for not being like everyone else. Also, Oh-Go-Wan is a very small kingdom and open to attack, so it is good to have a friendly giant around to protect everyone.

"King Kojo" plays out like a collection of interconnected short stories with solid continuity. The king and his associates are kind of like silly cartoon characters but they actually spend the entire story dealing with surprisingly serious problems. That's what really shocked me. Like... people try to kidnap him, murder him, or ruin his life. Some of the plots against the kingdom are shockingly hardcore. And yes, in contrast, everyone in this story act like they just came out of a kid's cartoon.

I mean... there were some nasty villains in this story. Pirates, evil princesses, magicians, and an absolutely bastard soldier that tried to take over the throne and replace the king. Even I was beginning to think Ketch had a damn point about people being assholes. Thank God old Kojo remained who he was through all this crap.

The story also goes through a lot of the details about how King Kojo runs his country, even down to the financial aspects. At one point, all of the king's treasury disappears, leaving the king of an entire nation with the inability to pay off his castle staff. This was particularly depressing, because you know he is a good person.

The closest thing I can think of to how these characters act are the Lilliputians from the "Gulliver's Travels" animated movie from one year later (1939). That movie also had cartoony people dealing with real world problems. I liked that movie because of that contrast. Maybe they saw this book and got the idea. I have no idea.

By the way, I do recommend "King Kojo." I really do. No, I'm serious. I want people to read this book. It's damn good. But folks, this book has been out of print since the day it came out. The copy I have set me back $200, and that was on the low end of the price list. I even consider myself lucky for getting it so cheap, if you can call that cheap. Most of the other copies I saw ran from $500 to $800. Yeah, that's crap. I'm sorry, there's just no other way to say it. It's just crap.

I'll tell you what I am gonna do though. I'm working with a fellow in California to get this old book scanned and archived on the internet. I don't know how long it will take, but I will make another blog about it if and when I get it done. It is a damn travesty that this wonderful book is so hard to get. Let's not let go of our history so easily, people!

This blog was written on January 29, 2023.

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This is my actual copy of the book.