The Surprising Adventures of the Magical Monarch of Mo and His People

Rating:
Summary: Dover pbk edition with color plates
Review: Dover edition does have color plates, in fact "all 15 of the full-page color plates and all of the more than 100 line drawings prepared by Frank Ver Beck for the first two editions [1900 and 1903]." This is a collection of 14 "surprises." But Mo, the land where these stories all take place, is like Oz in many ways. It is a land of enchantment where marvelous tings hapen, where people do not die, and where animals can talk. The landscape of Mo abounds in things children love to ear, and everything anyone wants grows from its trees. It was published (as A New Wonderland) the same year as the original Wizard of Oz.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely a classic
Review: I love this book it is far better than the wizard of oz It's the best fantasy ever

Rating:
Summary: Dover pbk edition with color plates
Review: The printing in the Amereon Edition of this book is poor. The pages look like faded xerox copies. This book contains no color plates, no dust jacket and is small in size. The book claims to be a limited edition. Well for a limited edition the four or so illustration plates are out of order and nowhere near the stories they belong to. If you want to buy this book, buy a better hardcover version. This book was copyrighted in 1903. It contains the roots of several ideas that really take off in Baum's OZ books. There are stories of changing heads, a large mechanical man and a little evil wizard guy who lives underground in a ruby mine ( a la the Nome King). However none of the stories comes close to the OZ tales. The one story in this book that keeps me from giving a rating of one star is "The Land Of Civilized Monkeys". Has the Baum family sued that French guy who wrote Planet Of The Apes? If not they should. How about a story where a young man lands from the sky into a civilization run by apes. He is roped and caged as a wild animal. He is put on display and examined by ape scientists as the possible "missing link" from which the apes descended. Sound familiar?? Baum wrote it in 1903 or so.

Rating:
Summary: The Amereon Edition is not worth the money I paid for it.
Review: The printing in the Amereon Edition of this book is poor. The pages look like faded xerox copies. This book contains no color plates, no dust jacket and is small in size. The book claims to be a limited edition. Well for a limited edition the four or so illustration plates are out of order and nowhere near the stories they belong to. If you want to buy this book, buy a better hardcover version. This book was copyrighted in 1903. It contains the roots of several ideas that really take off in Baum's OZ books. There are stories of changing heads, a large mechanical man and a little evil wizard guy who lives underground in a ruby mine ( a la the Gnome King). However none of the stories comes close to the OZ tales. The one story in this book that keeps me from giving a rating of one star is "The Land Of Civilized Monkeys". Has the Baum family sued that French guy who wrote Planet Of The Apes? If not they should. How about a story where a young man lands from the sky into a civilization run by apes. He is roped and caged as a wild animal. He is put on display and examined by ape scientists as the possible "missing link" from which the apes descended. Sound familiar?? Baum wrote it in 1903 or so.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely a classic
Review: This was one of my favorite books as a child and having recently reread it, I must say it works on an adult level as well. It's very imaginative and funny and shows what Baum could do when he let his imagination run away with him. I think it's better than any of the Oz books.