Rating: 
Summary: A must read for fans of fantasy
Review: The title of the book actually misleads the reader somewhat. Yes this book does describe the origins of Scraps, the patchwork girl, who goes on to become a regular fixture in future Oz stories. However she is, in fact, a secondary character in the story. The main character is Ojo "the unlucky," a Munchkin boy who embarks on a quest to save his beloved uncle who has been accidentally turned into a marble statue.This book offers the usual assortment of pleasantly odd characters, strange magical happenings and dramtic tension that go into all of the good Oz novels. What makes "Patchwork Girl..." stand out is its reltively mature subplot of the importance of rules. Ozma has made it illegal for most people to use magic. The crooked magician ignores this rule, and as an indirect result two innocent people are turned into marble. One of the items Ojo must get for his quest is illegal to gather. He doesn't want to break the law, but restoring his uncle is the most important thing to him, so he justifies it to himself. Then, the reader is introduced to the humane way Oz deals with people who break the rules. This theme will speak volumes to any child who has chaffed under the rules of an adult, but secretly acknowledged that the adult had his or her best interests at heart. Several reviewers have commented that the end of the book is a cop out, and yes it might be disappointing if you were expecting a big, dramatic magical event. In truth, however, it is a masterful conclusion to the rules subplot. The conclusion underscores that rules are made to be kept, and that breaking them and then trying to sneakily get around them only causes problems. If one admits to breaking the rules, as the crooked magician should have done, and then tries to correct the mistake, it often avoids a great deal of trouble and ultimately works out better. Overall, this book is a great read for young and old alike.
Rating: 
Summary: A return to form for Baum
Review: While the last three books in L. Frank Baum's "Oz" series ("Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz", "The Road to Oz" and "The Emerald City of Oz") were all rather lackluster, this book was a return to form. The problem with the other installments was a lack of a new story -- they were all about people who went to Oz, met lots of strange and interesting people, and had a happy ending. "The Patchwork Girl of Oz," however, had a very good story to bolster the old Oz formula. Ojo the Unlucky, a young Munchkin lad, along with the Glass Cat and Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, set out to find magical ingredients needed to restore his uncle and a magician's wife to life after they are accidentally petrified. So the story is, again, about someone wandering Oz and meeting strange and interesting people, but giving Ojo a quest gave the book a different angle, a sense of urgency -- this was a boy on a mission to save two lives. The ending is somewhat abrupt, although quite in-character for Baum's creations, but overall it is one of the better Oz books, a real return to form after a few that just didn't click.
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