This one felt a bit more cobbled-together than those before it. By Baum's admission in the intro, he didn't expect to be writing more about Oz, but it does feel like be phoned this one in a bit. The plot is much simpler, and while the main characters are likable, the side characters are just kind of "there". In fact, there are times when nothing is really happening, but the group of characters present is repeatedly listed and briefly described. It really did feel to me like Baum went, "well, you wanted more Oz, so here you go, I guess," and then did the bare minimum. I'm hoping things pick up again in the 9 books ahead!

While not as dark as the last book, The Road to Oz has many similarities to Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Again, our little heroine unintentionally sets off on a journey during which she meets a host of new characters, experiences a few easily-overcome challenges, and ends up in Oz. This time, though, there wasn't really any conflict and only one encounter with a malicious opponent on their travels. The Shaggy Man was actually a bit creepy at the beginning (my kids have been taught to run and find a parent if an adult they don't know asks them for directions!), though, of course, he turned out all right. Several of the new characters just stuck in my craw. Button Bright was just annoying...If he'd said "don't know" one more time I might have reached through the pages of the book and throttled him. And what, pray tell, was Polychrome's purpose (besides encouraging anorexia)? She was about as engaging as a piece of lint - a very pretty, variegated piece of lint, to be sure, but still...blah.

With these last two books it really seems that Mr. Baum was frustrated in his desires to write something other than Oz books, so he decided to set the books elsewhere and just have the characters end up in Oz so he could slap those two letters on the cover of the book and make money while trying to branch out into other "fairylands". I enjoyed reading all these when I was a kid, and my kids are loving them now, but as an adult, they're wearing a bit thin.

And I felt awfully bad for the poor Musicker, not getting an invite to Ozma's party. No one, in a land where kindness and generosity are supposed to reign supreme, was even the tiniest bit kind to the poor guy who can't help making music.

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A veces estas historias me exasperan por sus personajes tan particulares, en este me pasó mucho , muchísimo más que en los anteriores.
Mi problema no fueron los personajes que acompañan a Dorothy en este nuevo viaje a la Ciudad Esmeralda, si no que los personajes que se encontraron en el camino, los zorros, los burros, los scoolers, no sé cuál de todos fue más insoportable, por lo mismo, fui demasiado feliz cuando al fin llegamos al País de los Winkies.

En este libro me encontré con personajes notables, otros insoportables, otros ya queridos y también con situaciones y frases bastante ingeniosas.

Read in a day much better than book before it! Loved the new characters and really liked the return of old characters! 4/5

ITA-ENG

Ok, a questo punto la trama segue sempre gli stessi steps: Dorothy e strane terre- personaggi particolari-avventure-ritorno a Oz-ritorno a casa.
E mi andrebbe anche bene se non fosse per due cose: le avventure in sé e la mancanza di conflitto...che più o meno nella mia testa sono le stesse cose.
Le avventure sono sempre meno avvincenti, sempre meno pericolose e non mi prendono più come nei libri precedenti...e ormai tutti i personaggi sono buoni e si fa amicizia e tutto è meraviglioso. Dov'è il conflitto? Se c'è è irrilevante e viene risolto tramite Ozma o caratteristiche innate dei personaggi (senza però un minimo di crescita o merito). Vorrei qualcosa di più dai prossimi libri ma non credo che arriverà. Nell'introduzione Baum afferma candidamente che le idee per i personaggi e le avventure arrivano dalle lettere dei bambini che gli scrivono, grandi fan della saga. Va bene, però inseriamo un cattivo, un pericolo serio, qualcosa. Sono elementi necessari alle favole/fiabe e ai racconti per bambini.
Ovviamente continuerò a leggere i prossimi libri perché mi sono affezionata ai personaggi (che restano veramente fantastici, dal primo all'ultimo) e terrò le dita incrociate.


Ok, at this point I realize the plot always follows the same steps: Dorothy and strange lands-peculiar characters-adventures-back to Oz-back to home. And it would be fine if it wasn't for two things: the adventures and the lack of conflict..that in my head are pretty much the same thing. The adventures are less and less compelling, all the characters are good, they make friends and everything is wonderful. Where's the conflict? If you find it, it's usually irrelevant and it's faced with the help of Ozma or with the innate qualities of the characters (without growth or credit). I would like to see something more, but I don't think it's gonna happen. Baum candidly affirms in the introduction that the ideas for the characters and the adventures come from the children that write to him. Ok, that's fine, but let's introduce a villain, a serious danger, something. Those are necessary elements to fairytales, fables and children stories.
I'll obviously keep reading the books because I care about the characters (which are simply wonderful) and I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Pros: loved the illustrations, reminds me of my childhood, and I love the wacky/weird characters

Cons: Dorothy is so rude, button-bright is annoying, and the shaggy man traveling with these kids is just ???

It’s a children’s story over 100 years old, so it holds up fine. Would I read again? No.

The last half of the book--Ozma's birthday party--is goofy as hell, and boring also. But the first part has some charming bits. There's no point to Button Bright, but his "don't know" gets to be kind of funny. Polychrome could have been neat but really wasn't; I remember liking her quite a bit when i was a child, but as an adult, what exactly does she even do, is my question? The Love Magnet is actually handled pretty well. It bothered me when it was introduced (I had entirely forgotten it) because it was a "get out of conflict" item, but then it actually made some conflicts worse, so that was good. Overall, though, this isn't a high point. I mean, Santa Claus. Santa Claus.