Goodbye to Oz
While it's true the month of November is drawing to a close, as months are wont to do, that doesn't mean that Oz is going away! Oz has become part of our collective consciousness. Just the other day I recommended the name Dorothy to a friend for her upcoming baby and she said it was too "Ozzy" (meaning wizard of, not bat biting Osbourne). Over a hundred years later and that name still brings up images of tornadoes and checked gingham. We might not be able to physically get there, but just by opening the pages of a book we will be instantly transported, without the need of a cyclone, typhoon, earthquake or magical accessory. If you've been reading the reviews I've posted, you'll probably notice I'm rather harsh on the failings of the main characters and sometimes the repetition of the plots. The thing is though, while Oz has failings, they do not take away from what has been created here.
Oz is some of the most magical worldbuilding you'll ever read. Baum created a magical fairyland that has spanned centuries! He started writing this books during the reign of Queen Victoria, and to this day we have new adaptations, new books, new satires, all because this world he created is so loved. The few reviews I've written only span about half of the Oz books Baum himself wrote, having written fourteen books and a series of short stories all about that wonderful world. I hope that if nothing else, this month has increased peoples knowledge of Oz, showing there's more than just the one book, and made everyone realize how awesome Flying Monkeys are. How can they not be awesome! You still have a few hours to have one of your own!
Oz is that magical place. That land that everyone knows about even if you haven't read the books, because that movie is part of who we are. I defy you to find someone who doesn't know all the lyrics to "Over the Rainbow." Most people don't know that the books, instead of just being one, actually number into the double digits. L. Frank Baum wrote a land that everyone loved and could never get enough of, so much so that many authors took up the mantel of "Royal Historian of Oz" long after his death. One of the best "Historians" is Gregory Maguire. If the Oz books have failings it's that they are sacarine and sweet and sometimes too much of a sweet thing can give you a taste for bile. You want to know darker things, see bad things happen to Dorothy and side with the "wicked" witch. That's where Gregory Maguire's Wicked and subsequent volumes come to fill a void. It's Oz, but not quite as we know it. In honor of the final volume in his "Wicked Years," I am devoting the month of November to Oz. And what's a theme month without a giveaway?
Prize: This adorable flying monkey! 
