Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz was published in 1908 and brings back not just Dorothy but the original Wizard, who has not appeared since the first book. Dorothy is visiting her cousin Zeb on a California farm when an earthquake opens the ground beneath them. They fall through a series of underground countries with increasingly strange inhabitants: the Mangaboos, beautiful vegetable people who consider the visitors invasive weeds; the wooden Gargoyles of Gargoyleville; the invisible bears of Voe.

The Wizard, in his hot-air balloon from the first book, has also been swept underground, and he joins the party along with his cab horse Jim and a glass kitten called Eureka. The journey eventually surfaces in Oz, where Eureka is put on trial for allegedly eating one of Ozma’s pet piglets. The trial sequence is genuinely funny and probably the most legally minded chapter Baum ever wrote. The book is a little episodic compared to Ozma of Oz, but the Wizard’s return adds welcome continuity. Read after Ozma of Oz.