Rating: 
Summary: Nice try, Mr. Baum...
Review: After five "Oz" books, L. Frank Baum had enough, and tried to close off the series with this sixth installment. Of course, the children wouldn't let him, and he went on to write eight more, but this effort to end the series was one of the best in some time.The last two books ("Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" and "The Road to Oz") suffered serious problems. They meandered, there was no sense of danger, nothing bad could ever happen to these characters. This time out Baum started with our heroine in a form of danger -- Aunt Em and Uncle Henry were going to lose the farm in Kansas -- and went on to reestablish the greatest threat the Oz books had left, Roquat the Red, the Nome King. While this book again lacked a serious sense of danger, the devices Baum used in his effort to end the series were all clever, and furthermore, made for better stories when he returned to the series later. This is a lovely story, a real classic.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun tour of Oz
Review: Finally, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry get the chance to visit Oz, and Baum introduces them and us to a variety of unusual inhabitants. True, most of their journey through the countryside has little or nothing to do with the main plot, the attempt (again) by the Nome King to conquer Oz. But it's fun. And best of all, this book becomes a turning point for the series because in it Dorothy makes the decision to remain in Oz. While maybe not the best book in the series, The Emerald City of OZ is a lot of fun and well worth the read. Also recommended: King Fortis the Brave, Harry Potter and Abarat. Books that, 100 years from now, people will be looking back with the fondness of the Oz series.
Rating:
Summary: A fun tour of Oz
Review: Finally, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry get the chance to visit Oz, and Baum introduces them and us to a variety of unusual inhabitants. True, most of their journey through the countryside has little or nothing to do with the main plot, the attempt (again) by the Nome King to conquer Oz. But it's fun. And best of all, this book becomes a turning point for the series because in it Dorothy makes the decision to remain in Oz. While maybe not the best book in the series, The Emerald City of OZ is a lot of fun and well worth the read. Also recommended: King Fortis the Brave, Harry Potter and Abarat. Books that, 100 years from now, people will be looking back with the fondness of the Oz series.
Rating:
Summary: Still my favorite Oz book
Review: I just read The Emerald City of Oz to my little boy, who's almost five (see my earlier review of the book from 2000 which I wrote when he was about a week old!), and he and I both enjoyed it immensely. We're reading all the Oz books in order, and are now on our eighth (Tik-Tok of Oz). My son is a huge Oz fan.
One cautionary note to those who wish to read this book to their young children: My little one was actually quite upset and frightened at the prospect of Oz being invaded and possibly destroyed by the Nomes and their ferocious allies. A number of times I had to soothe him by explaining that Ozma was sure to find some way to save her country. Perhaps this is a better book for older children.
Rating:
Summary: a very good book
Review: i loved this book, but i didn't like the parts where there was a tour of oz, those parts seem to meander, it just seems like it just passes some time while the nome king builds his tunnel. i liked the growleywogs and the phanfasms. they were the charachters that made the book exciting.
Rating:
Summary: a very good book
Review: i loved this book, but i didn't like the parts where there was a tour of oz, those parts seem to meander, it just seems like it just passes some time while the nome king builds his tunnel. i liked the growleywogs and the phanfasms. they were the charachters that made the book exciting.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite Oz books
Review: In this sixth Oz book, Baum makes an effort to close down the series and tie up all the various loose ends. Dorothy, driven by financial disaster, brings Aunty Em and Uncle Henry to Oz to live out the rest of their lives in peace with Ozma in the palace. At the same time, Roquat the Red (the old foe of the girls) decides to lay waste to Oz once and for all to retrieve his magic belt.
The middle of the book meanders a bit, as Dorothy takes Aunt Em and Uncle Henry on a tour of some of the stranger parts of Oz. The various towns (Cuttenclips, Fuddles, Utensia, etc.) are half puns, half morality plays, but still clever for all of that. Dorothy is a well-written enough character that she can raise a smile even in a ridiculous scene like the one in Bunbury where she is offered a stale wheelbarrow to eat instead of the lunch she was looking for.
The Neill illustrations in this Oz book are particularly magical. For example, the big paste heads of the Whimsies have stuck in my head all the years since I have read it for the first time.
I have read all the Oz books multiple times, and this is one of the three which have proven the most memorable. (The other two are The Road to Oz and Ozma of Oz) It gets a high recommendation despite any minor flaws.
Rating:
Summary: The Emerald City of Oz
Review: NOTE: This is not the edition of the book I would have liked to review. I just didn't see it anywhere. This review is based on the Del Rey edition. The Emerald City of Oz is about how Dorothy, Aunt Em, and Uncle Henry go to live in Oz because of financial problems. Also, the Nome King is plotting to conquer the Emerald City along with many other dreadful creatures. To find out what happens, read The Emerald City of Oz. It's very exciting!
Rating:
Summary: The Emerald City of Oz
Review: NOTE: This is not the edition of the book I would have liked to review. I just didn't see it anywhere. This review is based on the Del Rey edition. The Emerald City of Oz is about how Dorothy, Aunt Em, and Uncle Henry go to live in Oz because of financial problems. Also, the Nome King is plotting to conquer the Emerald City along with many other dreadful creatures. To find out what happens, read The Emerald City of Oz. It's very exciting!
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite Oz books
Review: This Oz book is one of the more disjointed ones, more a sort of package tour of Ozma's magic kingdom than a quest. But the vignettes are charming and stick with you. The "Rigamaroles" have become part of this family's culture, with my 12 yo son and I occasionally getting into rigamarole competitions, where we go on and on without saying anything. Bunbury and Bunnybury also stuck with me during the six years between reading this to my first son and my second; utensia is ... punny; and the cuttenclips, the fuddles, and the flutterbudgets are all cute and endearing. A great read aloud for the 5 to 10 set. Onr thing, though: The famed metallic ink in the Books Of Wonder edition is just sort of glittery. Nice, but not really any big deal. I don't think that this is the best looking BoW Oz book.
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