The Royal Book of Oz

L. Frank Baum

Mar 2013 · Ascent Audio · Narrated by Shannon McManus

About this audiobook

Professor Wogglebug gets the characters of Oz thinking about their genealogy and where they came from because he wants to write 'The Royal Book of Oz,' recording all this information. This topic especially upsets the Scarecrow, as he knows that he was discovered by Dorothy hanging from a beanpole in a cornfield and he thinks that this mean he can't possibly have a family history. Woggleburg agrees and hurts Scarecrow's feelings by noting that because of Dorothy's discovery, Scarecrow has no family tree and should get the slightest mention in their Royal Book of Oz. Scarecrow decides to go on an adventure to find out more about his past and ventures down below Oz to learn more. He winds up in the Land of the Silver Islands whose people resemble the Chinese and who greet him with cheers welcoming back the Emperor. Scarecrow then begins learning about his unknown past life and his importance among the the people of the Silver Islands. While Scarecrow is away, Dorothy notices his absence and embarks on her own adventures to find him. United at last, they must work together to return to Oz. L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American author of children's books, most famous for his "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Baum wrote 13 sequels to his first Oz book and still has a huge fan base to this day. "The Royal Book of Oz" was the first book posthumously attributed to Baum, and was actually written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It is the 15th book in the Oz series.

About the author

Best known as the author of the Wizard of Oz series, Lyman Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856, in New York. When Baum was a young man, his father, who had made a fortune in oil, gave him several theaters in New York and Pennsylvania to manage. Eventually, Baum had his first taste of success as a writer when he staged The Maid of Arran, a melodrama he had written and scored. Married in 1882 to Maud Gage, whose mother was an influential suffragette, the two had four sons. Baum often entertained his children with nursery rhymes and in 1897 published a compilation titled Mother Goose in Prose, which was illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. The project was followed by three other picture books of rhymes, illustrated by William Wallace Denslow. The success of the nursery rhymes persuaded Baum to craft a novel out of one of the stories, which he titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Some critics have suggested that Baum modeled the character of the Wizard on himself. Other books for children followed the original Oz book, and Baum continued to produce the popular Oz books until his death in 1919. The series was so popular that after Baum's death and by special arrangement, Oz books continued to be written for the series by other authors. Glinda of Oz, the last Oz book that Baum wrote, was published in 1920.