(re)Reading L. Frank Baum's The Sea Fairies Aloud to My Kids

As I reread the original Oz books aloud to my kids (for the eight-year-old, this is stuff they heard a long time ago; for the five-year-old, not at all), we've been alternating with other stuff, usually prequels from the 1990s that we read where they take place, not when they were written. We're coming up on a run, though, where there's quite a lot that I want to fit in. 

The Sea Fairies by L. Frank Baum
illustrated by John R. Neill

Originally published: 1911
Acquired: February 2017
Previously read: February 2017 and January 2022
Reread aloud: September 2026

Specifically:

• I want to read Ojo in Oz immediately after Patchwork Girl so the characters of Ojo and Unc Nunkie are fresh in my kids' memories. (I know when I previously read Ojo to my older kid, they barely remembered Ojo.)
• I want to read Queen Ann in Oz immediately after Tik-Tok of Oz for similar reasons. (I haven't read Queen Ann but am curious about it.)
• I want to make sure we read both The Sea Fairies and Sky Island before The Scarecrow of Oz, so that the appearance of Trot and Cap'n Bill in Oz is meaningful. 

Thus, the best place to read The Sea Fairies, if I'm going to alternate, is between Road to Oz and Emerald City, and then we can do Sky Island where it was published, between Emerald City and Patchwork Girl... and hopefully my kids remember who Trot and Cap'n Bill are when we get to Scarecrow!

Rereading my comments on when I read Sea Fairies aloud the last time, I don't think I have much to add. This one is just not up to much. Some of the Oz books that I remember not liking a lot have come alive when read aloud, such as Road to Oz: even though Road doesn't have a very strong plot, each individual incident is fun and colorful on its own. But Sea Fairies doesn't even have that going for it, it's mostly a dull travelogue. It's sort of a Baum take on Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, but like that book, it is pretty boring.

I think the kids were okay with it, but the five-year-old was definitely happy to hear our next Oz book would be a Dorothy one, not a Trot and Cap'n Bill one.