Throwback Thursday: Tik-Tok of Oz

 

Throwback Thursday is a new feature at Reading Lark. We'll still be doing some Book Boyfriend Posts and Book BFF Posts on Thursdays as well, but the Larks wanted a little variety on Thursdays. Throwback Thursday will allow us to throwback to some of the reads we've loved -- whether it's a book reviewed last year, a book we hid under the covers to read as a teen, or a picture book from our childhood -- we hope you'll enjoy reliving the memories as much as we do!

Tik-Tok of Oz

By: L. Frank Baum
Published: 1914

 

There was a period of time, right around the release of the film Return to Oz, where I read as many of the books in the Oz series as my local library had on their shelves. And when I say "the Oz series," I mean the original series by L. Frank Baum. Yes, I read a few of the others penned by different people, but this was the "real" series so I've picked one of my favorites for today's Throwback Thursday. As I remember it, Tik-Tok was a big part of the aforementioned movie and this was the book that brought to my attention that there were books other than the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz out there. And yes, the books ARE better than any of the movies.

Summary via Goodreads

The fun begins in an isolated corner of Oz, in the small country of Oogaboo. There Queen Ann Soforth musters an unlikely army and sets off to conquer the rest of Oz. Meanwhile, a girl from Oklahoma named Betsy Bobbin and her companion, Hank the mule, are shipwrecked and washed ashore in the Rose Kingdom, a magical land of talking roses. There they meet the Shaggy Man, who is on a quest to rescue his brother from the clutches of the wicked Nome King. Betsy, Hank, and the Rose Princess join the Shaggy Man on his journey, and before long they meet up with Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter; Tik-Tok; and Queen Ann with her army. The rest of Baum's tale is filled with hairbreadth escapes, wild puns, and mystifying magic.