The Road to Oz
From Oz Wiki
| Written by | L. Frank Baum |
| Illustrator | John R. Neill |
| Published | 1909 |
| Publisher | Reilly & Britton |
The Road to Oz is the fifth book in L. Frank Baum's Oz book series.
| Click here to read The Road to Oz in its entirety. |
Contents |
Plot Summary
A Shaggy Man wanders past the Kansas farm where Dorothy Gale lives. He asks for directions, and while Dorothy is showing him the way, they meet a boy named Button-Bright and later encounter Polychrome, the Rainbow's daughter.
The travelers visit a city of foxes and one of donkeys. They meet the Musicker and the Scoodlers and eventually, with the help of Johnny Dooit, cross the Deadly Desert into the Land of Oz.
They journey to the Emerald City meeting many of Dorothy's old friends along the way. They arrive just in time for Princess Ozma's birthday party, to which many distinguished guests have been invited.
Finally, Dorothy and Toto return to Kansas while the Shaggy Man is invited to stay in Oz.
Characters
- Shaggy Man
- Dorothy Gale
- Toto
- Button-Bright
- King Dox
- Polychrome
- King Kik-a-bray
- Allegro da Capo
- The Scoodlers and their Queen
- Johnny Dooit
- Tik-Tok and Billina
- The Tin Woodman
- Jack Pumpkinhead
- The Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger
- The Wizard of Oz
- Jellia Jamb
- The Scarecrow and the Sawhorse
- And Ozma's numerous birthday guests:
- Glinda
- The Wogglebug
- John Dough, Chick the Cherub, and Para Bruin
- Santa Claus, a band of Ryls, and a dozen Knooks
- The Queen of Merryland and the Candy Man
- The Braided Man
- The Queen of Ev, King Evardo, his nine siblings
- Queen Zixi of Ix
- King Bud and Princess Fluff of Noland
- The Good Witch of the North
Design and illustration
The Road to Oz was the first Oz book to be published without color plate illustrations. Instead, the entire book was printed on pastel-colored paper — in sections of blue, green, beige, orange, gray, and lavender. (Later printings of the book dropped the colored paper for a standard white.) To compensate for the absence of color plates, Neill made his ink drawings unusually elaborate, with 21 full-page pictures.
Color plates returned with the next book in the series, The Emerald City of Oz, and remained standard until Captain Salt in Oz in 1936.
External links
| Previous book: | Next book: |
| Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz | The Emerald City of Oz |
