The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz, or Tip and the Sawhorse of Oz is a modern-day Oz book, written by James E. Nitch under the pen name "Onyx Madden," and illustrated by J. Noel. It was originally published in 1985, in an edition that featured an Introduction by Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow in the 1939 MGM film of The Wizard of Oz.
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Nitch sets his story after the events of L. Frank Baum's second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz. Princess Ozma is not yet reconciled to her recent change of gender; she dresses as Tip once again, and sneaks away with the Sawhorse for a series of adventures, including her first meetings with the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger, plus encounters with the Hammer-Heads, Fighting Trees, the dragon Quox, and other elements of Baum's Oz.
Nitch's book has won praise for Noel's lush illustrations, which include six full-color plates and 150 line drawings. The book resembles the original Oz books in this respect, more than most modern Oz stories do.
Nitch followed Jack Snow's "A Murder in Oz" and the film The Wonderful Land of Oz in depicting Tip/Ozma's gender transition as traumatic. More recent examples include Melody Grandy's The Seven Blue Mountains of Oz, Edward Einhorn's "Ozma Sees Herself," and the TV show Emerald City.