The Wishing Horse of Oz

1935 novel
The Wishing Horse of Oz
Cover art to "The Wishing Horse of Oz" by Ruth Plumly Thompson
Cover art
AuthorRuth Plumly Thompson
IllustratorJohn R. Neill
GenreJuvenile fantasy
PublishedChicago: Reilly & Lee Co., 1935[1]
Media typeBook
Pages298
OCLC2764298
Preceded bySpeedy in Oz 
Followed byCaptain Salt in Oz 

The Wishing Horse of Oz (1935) is the twenty-ninth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the fifteenth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson.[2] It was illustrated by John R. Neill. This book marked the point at which Thompson had written more Oz books than Baum himself.[3]

This Oz mystery starts in the small, poor kingdom of Skampavia, where King Skamperoo wishes for a horse using enchanted emerald necklaces. When Chalk, a talking Horse from Oz, falls from the sky, Skamperoo decides the emeralds must be from the Emerald City, and decides to conquer all of Oz. He magically causes all the residents of Oz to forget their rightful rulers and accept him as their emperor instead.[4] Only Dorothy and Pigasus, the flying pig, are able to remember Princess Ozma, the true ruler of Oz, and together they set out to rescue her.[5] The mystery in this story is how to make the necklaces grant wishes, which only the horse Chalk knows how to do.

This was the last Oz book to feature illustrations in color, and only the first edition and the International Wizard of Oz Club edition (1990) have them.[6]

Reception

Samuel A. Kaufman in the Brooklyn Times Union gave the book a negative review, saying, "The magic charm of the original Oz is not there... There are too many characters, too many complications, too much machinery — and too much book. It is insufferably padded."[7] A more generous reviewer in the Columbia Missourian wrote, "Children who like beautiful things, lovable and unusual fairy people and animals, and a really important mystery will like The Wishing Horse of Oz. I can't tell you enough nice things about it."[8]

Copyright status

This book, along with Thompson's next four, did not get renewed for copyright, making them public domain and freely readable online.

References

  1. ^ The Wishing Horse of Oz. OCLC 2764298 – via OCLC Worldcat.
  2. ^ Simpson, Paul (2013). A Brief Guide to Oz. Constable & Robinson Ltd. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-1-47210-988-0. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  3. ^ "The Wishing Horse of Oz". The Royal Blog of Oz. 21 March 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  4. ^ Ness, Mari (13 May 2010). "Taxation in Fairyland: The Wishing Horse of Oz". Tor.com. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  5. ^ Jack Snow, Who's Who in Oz, Chicago, Reilly & Lee, 1954; New York, Peter Bedrick Books, 1988; pp. 33, 193.
  6. ^ "The Wishing Horse of Oz". Celebrating the New Century of Oz. Oz Central LLC. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  7. ^ Kaufman, Samuel A. (November 22, 1935). "Today's New Books". Brooklyn Times Union. p. 6. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  8. ^ "Ruth Plumly Thompson Carries on Frank Baum's Stories of Land of Oz". Columbia Missourian. December 21, 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 23 February 2024.

External links

  • The Wishing Horse of Oz at Project Gutenberg
  • The Wishing Horse of Oz public domain audiobook at LibriVox
  • On The Wishing Horse of Oz
  • The Wishing Horse of Oz title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
The Oz books
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Speedy in Oz
The Wishing Horse of Oz
1935
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Captain Salt in Oz
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