The Giant Horse of Oz
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| The Giant Horse of Oz | |
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| Author | Ruth Plumly Thompson |
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| Illustrator | John R. Neill |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Oz books |
| Genre(s) | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Reilly & Lee |
| Publication date | 1928 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Preceded by | The Gnome King of Oz |
| Followed by | Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz |
The Giant Horse of Oz (1928) is the twenty-second of the Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and the eighth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was Illustrated by John R. Neill.
[edit] Plot
The tiny kingdom of the Ozure Isles is the Kashmir or Shangri-La of Oz; perched on five islands in Lake Orizon, surrounded by high mountains in a remote region of Munchkin Land, it has little contact with the outside world—of Oz, that is. The beaches are not sand but gemstones; the people travel between their islands not by boat, but by seahorse. Or they used to, before the evil witch Mombi turned her malice in the Ozure direction. After kidnapping Queen Orin, Mombi left a fire-breathing lake monster named Quiberon in Lake Orizon to keep the natives prisoner. Even after Mombi is vanquished, the isolated Ozurites remain oppressed.
Conditions grow worse when the quixotic Quiberon demands a mortal maiden. Since Oz is a fairyland, the only mortal maidens are three American girls living in the Emerald City: Dorothy Gale, Betsy Bobbin, and Tiny Trot. Two Ozurites respond to the crisis in two separate ways. The heroic Prince Philador escapes from the islands to seek the aid of Tattypoo, the Good Witch of the North. The unheroic Akbad, the Ozure Isles soothsayer, pursues an appeasement policy in a novel way: with a pair of magic wings he flies to the Emerald City and kidnaps Trot. (She, the heroine of L. Frank Baum's Sky Island and The Sea Fairies, reached Oz in Baum's The Scarecrow of Oz.) Being a neophyte kidnapper, Akbad overdoes it, and accidentally kidnaps the Scarecrow and an animated statue called Benny (short for "public benefactor") along with his primary target.
In his search for Tattypoo, Prince Philador teams up with High Boy, a giant horse with telescoping legs, and Herby the Medicine Man, an eighteenth century doctor with a medicine chest in his own chest due to an incomplete disenchantment. Various adventures ensue, in strange locations like Cave City, and with even stranger beings like the Roundabouties and Shutterfaces. Eventually, matters are sorted out satisfactorily: the Wizard turns Quiberon into a great bronze and silver statue, and the good Witch Tattypoo is revealed to be the missing and amnesiac Queen Orin. She is restored to her family and kingdom. Trot becomes a princess of the Ozure Isles, welcome in their Sapphire City whenever she chooses to visit.
This article relating to the book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" or one of their derivative works is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| The Oz books | ||
| Previous book: The Gnome King of Oz |
The Giant Horse of Oz 1928 |
Next book: Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz |
