Reading The Emerald City of Oz Aloud to My Son

The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by John R. Neill

Since The Wizard of Oz, my elder son and I pretty much plunged from Oz book to Oz book, a chapter most days, if not two or more. In September, having finished The Road to Oz, we went straight into The Emerald City of Oz.

Originally published: 1910
Acquired: September 2021
Read aloud: September & December 2021

And about halfway through, we just stopped. I don't know what it was exactly; he's grasping narrative more and more, but articulating this I guess was beyond him. But he suddenly stopped asking if we could read Oz, and started rejecting my offers to read it. Eventually, I stopped offering; I did bring it with us on a trip to New Jersey to October, and one time he picked it as his bedtime book, but other than that, nothing, no interest. Was this the end of our great experiment? It sat forlorn on an end table for months.

No, because totally unprompted one December day, he said, "I want to read Oz!" And so it was back on, in a consistent run that has pretty much gone straight through to February, though he shows signs of slowing down again as of late.

Was it just general Oz burnout? Or did he dislike this Oz book in particular? Or was my own disdain for it influencing my performance? Because it is by my count, the weakest of the original six books.

I do know that it seemed as though he wasn't into any of the chapters detailing what the Nomes were up to; this is the first Oz book to use a device that Baum would periodically return to, of switching between different groups of characters in different places, instead of staying with a single person or group the entire time. Exactly what General Guph was doing with what set of would-be Nome allies seemed to be something he never really grasped the importance of.

The problem is, though, that nothing really happens in this book. While the Nomes plot their invasion of Oz, Dorothy and her family move to the Emerald City... and then just go on a pleasant tour of the Land of Oz. They are literally not trying to accomplish anything! And without that sense of forward progress, there's no interest to the individual encounters, Baum introduces no new characters of note. The defeat of the Nomes is almost by accident. I didn't much enjoy reading this one aloud, and it seems that my son didn't either. No wonder he gave up, and I am pretty grateful he reversed his decision!

As always, the Books of Wonder facsimile looks pretty nice. The green ink is a cool touch... that said, I don't really remember any standout illustrations.