A review by alicejwhite17
Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum

5.0

Maybe it is just knowing it is the last book but for some reason I never really enjoy the last book in a series. The Hunger Games is an exception. I knew this was the last book and I had some preconceived ideas about it. It was a really good book though and it makes me sad to think there are no more oz books. I love these books primarily because they are pure imagination. They are not like Alice in Wonderland which is pure nonsense. These stories make sense and they are so full of imagination. The different people and adventures they go on are creative and fun. To have such an imagination is something to be treasured and valued. The story starts off with Dorothy and Ozma looking at Glinda's great record book. In it they discover that the flatheads and skeezers are about to go to war. This of course is against the law and Dorothy and Ozma set out at once to prevent this war. The girls have never heard of skeezers or the flatheads so they must have never heard of Dorothy or Ozma. When the girls arrive at the flatheads home they learn that the flatheads are a bunch of people who have no brains. There heads are as flat as a pancake. They keep all their brains in a can. The King and Queen of the flatheads had stolen brains from other people, so they could become smart enough to perform magic. They wanted to fish out of this lake at the bottom of the mountain that they lived on. Only the ruler of the skeezers the great Co-Eeh-Hoo wouldn't allow them to do that. So when the flathead rulers came to the lake the ruler of the skeezers turned the queen flathead into a bronze pig. Ozma and Dorothy decided they needed to pay a visit to this Co-Eeh-Hoo. Both the skeezers and flatheads were practicing magic illegally as well. When Dorothy and Ozma made it to the lake they discovered the home of the Skeezers was on an island in the middle of the lake. A boat was sent out to retrieve them. They met the great ruler of the Skeezers, who haughtily told them they were prisoners now. She did not care if Ozma ruled all of Oz. They were put in charge of the Lady Aurux who took them to her home and explained how Co-Eeh-Hoo had learned her magic. She had invited Three Adepts of Magic to her palace and after learning some magic from them turned them into fish and threw them into the lake. She then stole all their magical things. The next day the flatheads came down from the mountain to wage war. The first thing Co-Eeh-Hoo did was to submerge the island underwater so the flatheads could not attack the island. She then set out in boats with her soldiers to conquer the flatheads. The flathead king was rather clever though and had made a potion in a pot that would transform Co-Eeh-Hoo. He threw it on her and she turned into a swan. As soon as she was transformed she forgot all her magic and was only concerned with being a swan. That was not good because Co-Eeh-Hoo used magic to raise and lower the island, to send out boats and to extend the bridge. Dorothy and Ozma were trapped until help came and the men in boats were trapped outside of the island. Glinda though read all this in her great book of records and immediately called together a council. Everyone decided the best thing would be to go to there and try and rescue Ozma and Dorothy. Meanwhile the three adepts of magic acquired the help of a Skeezer to take them to a sorceress in the woods. By tricking her, he was able to get her to transform the adepts back into their rightful forms. When the adepts and the skeezer made it back Glinda and everyone were already there. It took some thinking but Scraps finally came up with a plan of draining the lake. Of course that would kill the fish but if they drained it enough to get to the dome, they would be able to cut a hole in it and lower themselves down with rope. This worked out perfect but no one knew any of the magic words. Glinda tried all kinds of things until Dorothy suggested it might be Co-Eeh-Hoo's name. Thy tested it out and sure enough each part of Co-Eeh-Hoo's name did something. They were able to raise the island and extend the bridge. Ozma appointed lady Aurux the new ruler of the Skeezer's. As for the flatheads, Glinda sewed their brains back into their heads so no one could steal each other's brains. The queen was transformed back and the rulers ruled but no longer with magic. Everyone went home safe and happy.