The Gnome King of Oz

I bought "THE GNOME KING OF OZ" as part of my three book buy at Hartville Flea Market a few weeks ago, and my edition is a First Edition copy with all of the original color plates in it.  I finally read through it with a huge amount of joy at reading a whole new Oz story.   Which is almost as good as a new season of "Project Runway .

Besides it gave me something to do in the only air conditioned room in the house the bedroom during the day as the heat has been making me very queazy to my stomach most of the time.  The bedroom has a window air conditioner in it

It is in my personal opinion a VERY worthy addition to the Oz canon, THE GNOME KING OF OZ is a little for me a HUGE hit. The basic story revolves around Scraps, the Patchwork Girl---who by the way I adore, the Gnome King, and another of Thompson's very generic boy heroes, this one from her own Philadelphia named Peter Brown. who is not one of my favorite American visitors to Oz, but does have a well-developed personality.

The story picks up as a sort of sequel to KABUMPO IN OZ, at the end of which the Gnome King is banished to the Lonely Isle/Runaway Island as it is referred to both during the book. Ruggedo is back, with yet another attempt to conquer the Land of Oz. As usual, Thompson does a good job with this character, making him a threatening yet childish and humorous villain.

Scraps has been kidnapped by the Quilties of Patch, in the  Winkie Country and made their Queen as the old one (get ready for the bad pun)---fell to pieces.  Scraps who is than forced to slave away in the castle of Patch for fear of the Scissorbird, which is a new character in the book.. This is because in a reverse role on royalty by Thompson, the Queen has to do all the work. Which I thought was very clever and Scraps crown is a sewing basket on her head. 

Peter, the boy from Philadelphia, buys a balloon which turns out to be a balloon bird and flies off over the Nonestic Ocean, ending up on Ruggedo's island much to Peter's later horror. The two of them get across the Deadly Desert in a Sunken pirate ship when the ocean literally turns over--- bottom becomes top.  Along the way Peter realizes the Gnome King is not the greatest guy and just wants to get to Oz so he can go home much like Dorothy did..  Soon they meet the Oztrich and his little egg and go to Tune Town where Queen Jazzma is very kind.

The story is for me very interesting, and some great new characters are introducted, such as Wumbo the Wonder Worker, Kuma Party, and Ozwold the oztrich. But other elements fall a bit flat. The undeveloped  bear Grumpy only bumbles along with Scraps on her adventures, and Peter doesn't grow very much as a character at all until near the very end.

The Patchwork Girl and Peter eventually escape from Patch, another one of the tiny kingdoms scattered throughout Oz (and the second to emphasize sewing).

After the escape from Patch, the timing suffers somewhat, with Peter and Scraps, along with the less interesting Grumpy the bear and Ozwold the oztrich, visiting the irrelevant villages that appear in most Oz books.  I want to leave you wondering if Peter makes it to Oz? Does he or some else stop the Gnome King?  Does Peter make it back to Philadelphia?  Well go borrow the book or find it in newer printings I believe at Hungry Tiger Press.

For me the story as a whole was thrilling, the cleverness witht he whole Patch "town" had me glued to my book maybe its the fashion designer in me.  Well until next time, I am so glad we had this time together.