After Baum's death in 1919, publisherReilly & Lee made annual Oz books, In 1921, Royal Historian Ruth Plumly Thompson wrote nineteen Oz books. After Thompson, Reilly & Lee made seven more books in the series: three by John R. Neill, two by Jack Snow, one by Rachel R.C. Payes, and a final book by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw. The forty books in Reilly & Lee's Oz series are called "the Famous Forty" by fans, and are considered the canonicalOz texts.[2]
Following Baum's death, publisher Reilly & Lee continued publishing annual Oz books, selecting new Royal Historians to record the latest Oz doings. These books, together with Baum's original fourteen novels, form the "Famous Forty", and are considered the canonical books of the series.[2]
Ruth Plumly Thompson's style was markedly different from Baum's. Her tales harked back to more traditional fairy tales. She often included a small kingdom, with a prince or princess who saves his or her kingdom and regains the throne or saves Oz from invasion.
Illustrator John R. Neill's vision of Oz is more manic than Thompson or Baum's. Houses often get up and do battle, and everything can be alive. His entries take Oz's color scheme (blue for Munchkin Country, red for Quadling Country, etc.) to an extreme, extending it to sky and skin colors.
Jenny Jump captures a leprechaun and forces him to make her into a fairy, but he only does half the job before escaping. Jenny then jumps to Oz using her half-fairy gifts. She soon sets up a fashionable Style Shop with a magic turnstile which will give anyone high style and challenges Ozma to an ozlection to become ruler of the Land of Oz.
The Wizard creates Scalawagons, intelligent cars that can also fly. He makes Tik-Tok superintendent of the Scalawagons Factory, but the mechanical man runs down. Bell Snickle, a mysterious creature, takes advantage of Tik-Tok's condition by filling the scalawagons with "flabber-gas" and the Wizard nearly loses his scalawagons.
Bucky is aboard a tugboat in New York Harbor when the boiler blows up. He is soon blown into the Nonestic Ocean where he meets Davy Jones, a wooden whale. The pair travel to the Emerald City, and have many watery adventures along the way.
Jack Snow was a Baum scholar, and even offered to take over the series at age twelve when Baum died. Snow's books lack any characters created by Thompson or Neill, although he did create his own.
Ozma and Glinda go to meet with the Fairy Queen Lurline in the Forest of Burzee and leave Dorothy in charge of Oz. During Ozma's absence, the evil Mimics escape their imprisonment on Mount Illuso and use their magic to take the form of others and attempt to conquer Oz.
It is discovered that the love magnet, which was owned by the Shaggy Man (from The Road to Oz), has broken, and only its creator, the evil Conjo, can fix it. Meanwhile, Twink and Tom are pulled through their television to the Isle of Conjo in the Nonestic Ocean along with the wooden clown Twiffle. Soon the Shaggy Man arrives and saves them from Conjo.
Jam, a boy from Ohio, builds a kite and attaches it to a crate and sets off to Oz with his two guinea pigs, Pinny and Gig, and a lab rat named Percy. Once in Oz, Jam realizes his pets can talk. He lands in the Hidden Valley and becomes a prisoner, but they escape and set out on adventures with the Tin Woodman.
Book by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw
Robin Brown from the United States rides a magic merry-go-round horse named Merry Go Round to Oz. Upon landing, Robin must help find the missing magic Circlets of Halidom.
Tompy, a drummer boy from the United States and Yankee, an Air Force dog meet the Red Jinn of Ev and together defeat an evil giant who is threatening both America and Oz. Originally written in 1954, it was published by the Club in 1972 with Reilly & Lee's authorization.
David B. Perry and his talking camel Humpty Bumpty find themselves on Kapurta, an island stranded in the sky. David must supply the magic to move the island and visit the Emerald City in time for the Cowardly Lion's birthday party.
Ozma takes a sip from limeade made from the Forbidden Fountain, forgets who she is and disappears. As the androgynous Poppy, she befriends reformed unsuccessful bandit Tobias Bridlecull, Jr. and a white lamb named Lambert. Kabumpo sets out to rescue her, but he believes Toby to be a kidnapper, so she does not want to be saved.
Septimius Septentrion is three weeks into a job as a printer at the Ozmapolitan in the Emerald City of Oz. A chance meeting with Princess Dorothy leads to a plan to drum up news to promote the sleepy Ozite newspaper. Accompanied by a mifket named Jinx and Dorothy's cat Eureka, "Tim" and Dorothy embark on a cross-country trip through the Winkie Country. The plan is to meet the Scarecrow at his corncob-shaped residence; but the plan quickly goes awry. The party encounter a fortune-teller and receive cryptic gingerbread-fortune-cookie predictions: Dorothy's is "A Fat Chance," Tim's is "A Blue Moon," and Jinx's is "A Silent Melody."
The Expeditioneers, as they call themselves, learn the meanings of these fortunes as they progress through an Art Colony, a Game Preserve, and a long and complex subterranean journey.
Singra, the Wicked Witch of the South, awakens after a 100-year nap and decides to make up for all the wickedness she missed out on. Dorothy and friends must try and stop her before she destroys the Emerald City.
Published in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. When the Glass Cat attends the dedication of Silica Valley's Great Glass-works, she doesn't know she's about to find her roots and be wished smack dab into the middle of the 101-year-old mystery of the Hidden Prince of Oz.
Toto of Oz
Gina Wickwar
Anna-Maria Cool
2006
International Wizard of Oz Club
Toto sets out for the deep, dark Gillikin forests to find the beasts who stole his growl. Eventually he meets an aristocratic guinea pig, the poet Sonny, a plaid Hoot Owl, and two visitors from Kentucky. Joining forces, the adventurers soon realize that some mysterious magic is the cause of their misfortunes and the key to unraveling the secret of strange disappearances.
The Troopadours are traveling entertainers. When they reach the village of Whitherwood in the Gillikin Country, they are enchanted by a malicious magician called Slyddwyn.
Ozma, the lovely girl ruler of Oz, must find a way to restore the enchantment that keeps her people young. A lovable but puzzling Parrot-Ox named Tempus carries Ozma back through time to seek the source of the aging enchantment
The Silver Tower of Oz
Margaret Baum
2011
In a time long before Dorothy Gale first visited the Land of Oz, three children travel through the magical land in search of their lost parents. Along the way they befriend a bunnymunch, a clockwork squirrel, good witches, and many others who help them after they inadvertently release a wicked witch.
It is a parallel novel written by Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith. Based upon the writings of L. Frank Baum, it is a revisionist look at the land and characters of Oz, drawing primarily from Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
The novel presents events, characters and situations from Baum's books and the film in new ways, with several differences between the L. Frank Baum series and the Wicked Cycle. These differences arise from the original Oz functioning as a mirror-image of Kansas in a cultural and economic framework: Oz was wealthy, prosperous and had excellent agricultural yields while Kansas was characterized by economic hardship, environmental difficulties and poor harvests. The social strife described in The Wicked Years indicates that the two series are set in similar and internally consistent but distinctly separate visions of Oz.
The novel focuses on the life of the Wicked Witch of the West, whom Maguire gives the name Elphaba.
Unlike the popular 1939 movie and Baum's writings, this novel is not directed at children, and contains adult language and content.
It is the basis for the Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which was adapted into a two-part musical film directed by Jon M. Chu.
The fourth and final volume in "The Wicked Years", focusing on the life of Rain, daughter of Liir and granddaughter of Elphaba. The story also includes Dorothy's return to Oz (and trial for the deaths of the Wicked Witches of the East and West), as well as the appearance of Tip and Mombi (here spelled "Mombey") from The Marvelous Land of Oz.
Tales Told in Oz
2012
A collection of five short stories exploring the folklore of Oz in "The Wicked Years."
The Brides of Maracoor
2021
The first volume in the series "Another Day", set after "The Wicked Years" and centered on Rain, Elphaba's granddaughter.
Alexander Volkov was a Russian novelist who published his own series of Oz novels called the Magic Land books, for readers in Soviet Russia, China and East Germany. His first book, published in 1939, was a translation and adaptation of Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but the further books that he wrote in the 1960s and 70s were entirely Volkov's invention.
Volkov's original adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Ellie, 9, and her puppy Totoshka are carried in a hurricane to the Magic Land. After the first shock of the beauty of the land and Totoshka's sudden gift of wise speech, they meet the Fairy of the Yellow Land, Villina, who tells them that she has allowed their house to be taken by the wind to land on the head of Gingema, the Wicked Witch of the Blue Land, and kill her. Now Ellie is called "The Fairy of the Killing House" and is worshipped by the people around. Villina tells Ellie to follow the Yellow Brick Road to find Goodwin, the Great and the Horrible, the ruler of the Magic Land, who lives in the Emerald City. He is supposed to bring Ellie back home to her parents if she fulfills the greatest wishes of three creatures that she will meet on the way. They set off, Ellie wearing the silver shoes that Totoshka has found in Gingema's house. They meet Strashila the scarecrow, who dreams of having a brain, The Iron Woodman, who dreams of a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who dreams about courage. This novel is nearly the same as the original, with a few changes and additions.
Urfin Dzhus and His Wooden Soldiers
1963
The first of Volkov's sequels, all of which have nearly nothing to do with Baum's. In this one, set one year after the events in the first novel, Urfin Dzhus, a former servant of Gingema, discovers a magical powder that brings things to life. He then creates an army of wooden soldiers and sets off to conquer the Magic Land. On her farm in Kansas, Ellie meets a crow bearing a pictured message: Strashila and The Iron Woodman behind bars. Ellie (with Totoshka) and her uncle, the wooden-legged seaman Charlie Black, set off through the desert and the mountains to help their friends.
Seven Kings of the Underground
1964
Trapped in a huge cave after a collapse, Ellie, now 11, Totoshka and Ellie's cousin Fred (13) are forced to move further into the cave. They end up in the underground of the Magic Land, in the Land of the Seven Kings of the Underground, which is currently caught up in a serious political crisis. The people recognize Ellie as the Fairy of the Killing House and keep her hostage, forcing her to use her magical powers to restore the Magical Spring of Sleepy Water that keeps the order in the country. It is up to Fred now to find a way out to seek help from Ellie's friends.
The Fiery God of the Marrans
1968
Urfin Dzhus deceives the backward marrans (jumpers), who until then did not know how to control fire, with the help of the injured eagle Karfax, whom he nursed back to health, and the lighter of the one-legged sailor Charlie Black. He persuaded them to wage war against the winkers and the Emerald City. With the help of Ellie's sister Ann, her boyfriend Tim O'Kelli, Arthur, a grandson of the dog Toto and two mechanical ponies and a grandiose volleyball game, the heroes succeed in defeating Urfin this time as well.
The Yellow Fog
1970
A giant witch named Arachna wakes up after a 5,000 years' sleep. She wishes to rule the Magic Land, but seeing that the people would not surrender, sends on them an eerie Yellow Fog that threatens to bring eternal winter and poison all the people, eventually causing mass death and destruction. The people of the Magic Land Once seal rooms to hide inside and use the leaves of a certain tree as gas masks, but this cannot last forever. Annie, Ellie's younger sister (8), her friend Tim (9), and Artoshka, Totoshka's grandson, accompanied by Charlie Black, rush to the rescue. Charlie builds a giant piloted robot who defeats the witch.
The Secret of the Abandoned Castle
1976, 1982
This time the people of the Magic Land have to deal with an alien invasion. The inseparable Annie and Tim, now 12 and 13, along with Fred the engineer, arrive to help their friends. They discover that the aliens are not united: some of them, the Arzaks, are enslaved to the Menvits through their hypnotic eyes. The guests from the Outer World discover that the Magic Land may hold the key to the Arzaks' freedom.
A "Big Little Book" written by Baum's eldest son (credited as "Frank Baum") and published by Whitman Publishing. It has none of the characters from the official Oz books, though briefly mentions the Wizard. Whitman allowed it to go out of print after a lawsuit threat from Reilly & Lee.
The Dinamonster of Oz
Kenneth Gage Baum
1941/1991
Written by Baum's youngest son in 1941. Published in 1991.
The author is L. Frank Baum's great-grandson. In this story, Dorothy and Toto return to the Land of Oz when it is under attack by a Jester using the wand of the Wicked Witch of the West. Besides help from Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, Dorothy gets help in her quest by a China Doll Princess, Tugg (a tugboat made from the limbs of the Talking Trees with as many personalities as he has pieces), and Wiser the Owl (who has an unlucky attraction to molasses). The 2014 film Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return is partially inspired by Dorothy of Oz.
The Rewolf of Oz
1990
The SillyOzbuls of Oz
1991
The first book in a trilogy featuring the "SillyOzbuls", creatures who look like they're made of balls of pink fluff.
The SillyOzbul of Oz and Toto
1992
The SillyOzbul of Oz and the Magic Merry-Go-Round
1992
Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage
1995
An origin story for the Cowardly Lion describing him as a circus lion that came to Oz with the Wizard. Adapted into the animated film Lion of Oz in 2000.
Set approximately 30 years after the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the protagonist of this novel is Hank Stover, the son of Dorothy Gale Stover. After his plane is lost in a mysterious green cloud, Hank finds himself in an Oz on the brink of a civil war. The novel states that the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are based on real events. Baum had been a newspaper reporter in Nebraska around the time Dorothy was transported to Oz; he interviewed her and later used his notes as the basis for the first novel. All subsequent novels by Baum are solely products of his imagination.
Was employs the literary conceit that a Kansas girl named Dorothy existed and that, as a school teacher, L. Frank Baum made up the story of the first Oz book to amuse her. The novel takes place in the real world.
Home from Oz
Thomas Nelson
1994
Home from Oz (Thomas Nelson, 1994) and The Oz Syndrome (Hillcrest Publishers, 2001) are two books penned by psychologist and professor, Dr.Michael A. O'Donnell which deal with the Oz characters and the MGM musical version from a psychological point of view.
The characters visit an unpopulated version of the Emerald City, called the Green Palace. The Palace is a combination of the versions from the 1939 film and the book, pulled from the protagonists' imaginations. The man sitting on the Wizard's throne turns out to be Marten Broadcloak, an alter-ego of one of the Dark Tower Series' main villains.
Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman use a Klein bottle to travel to New York City in 1998. Gardner's whimsical fantasy includes various characters from the Oz books as well as ancient Greek gods and characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
This novel takes place a few years after the end of the Oz Squad comic book series. The Squad rushes to foil a plot by Rebecca Eastwitch to enslave both Earth and Oz using the secrets of a grimoire stolen from the Library of Hell.
Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond
The first book in the series finds Dorothy struggling with dreams from her past visit to Oz. After finding a locket in the woods, she starts to feel that perhaps finding it was not as much of a coincidence as she thought. After being torn back into the kingdom of Oz, she finds that the magical kingdom is no longer the great, fabled fairy-country it was on her past visit. Published by Griffin Young Readers. First book in the middle grade series 'The Oz Saga'[4]
Return to "Return to Oz", and Other Tales
Justin MacCormack
2014
The collection of horror and dark fantasy stories including the titular story, themed around a man rediscovering his past and coming to terms with the disturbing moments he has experienced, set against the nostalgic memory of the film "Return to Oz".
A young adult re-imagining of the Oz series where Dorothy is a tyrannical ruler of Oz. The story follows many new characters including the main protagonist Amy Gumm. There are many adult themes throughout.
The Wicked Will Rise
Danielle Paige
2015
The sequel to Dorothy Must Die.
Yellow Brick War
Danielle Paige
2016
The third book in the Dorothy Must Die series.
The End of Oz
Danielle Paige
2017
The fourth and final book in the Dorothy Must Die series.