The Lost King of Oz

Ruth Plumly Thompson

Aug 2022 · Erika · Narrated by Phil Chenevert

About this audiobook

"Princess Ozma has ruled so wisely and happily in the wonderful Land of Oz for so long that most of us have forgotten the strange story of the Lost King of Oz—Ozma's father. As everyone in Oz knows, the King was transformed from his royal self by Mombi, the wicked old Gilliken witch, and lost his throne and his crown when he, himself, was lost. In this new Oz book the Royal Historian tells how Snip, the little buttonboy, and Pajuka, the great white goose—who had been the lost King's prime minister in the good old days—set out from the jolly Kingdom of Kimbaloo to find the King and to petition Princess Ozma to punish Mombi for her wicked mischief. Princess Dorothy meets Snip and Pajuka, as she returns from a sudden and curious visit to Hollywood with a funny and friendly moving picture dummy, and the four adventurers are whisked to the Emerald City by Kabumpo, the Elegant Elephant. At the Court of Ozma the Scarecrow and the Wizard of Oz join in the attempt to find the Lost King, and the surprising events that follow make a truly exciting Oz story. After many thrilling attempts, the mystery of the Lost King is magically solved, but you must read for yourself to find out all about it."

About the author

An avid reader of Baum's books and a lifelong children's writer, Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began her writing career in 1914 when she took a job with the Philadelphia Public Ledger; she wrote a weekly children's column for the newspaper. She had already published her first children's book, The Perhappsy Chaps, and her second, The Princess of Cozytown, was pending publication when William Lee, vice president of Baum's publisher Reilly & Lee, solicited Thompson to continue the Oz series. (Rumors among fans that Thompson was Baum's niece were untrue.) Between 1921 and 1939, she wrote one Oz book a year. (Thompson was the primary supporter of her widowed mother and invalid sister, so that the annual income from the Oz books was important for her financial circumstances.) Thompson's contributions to the Oz series are lively and imaginative, featuring a wide range of colorful and unusual characters. However, one particular theme repeats over and over throughout her novels, with little variation. Typically in each of Thompson's Oz novels, a child (usually from America) and a supernatural companion (usually a talking animal), while traveling through Oz or one of the neighboring regions, find themselves in an obscure community where the inhabitants engage in a single activity. The inhabitants of this community then capture the travelers, and force them to participate in this same activity. Another major theme has elderly characters, most controversially, the Good Witch of the North, being restored to "marriageable" age, possibly because Thompson herself never married. She had a greater tendency toward the use of romantic love stories (which Baum usually avoided in his fairy tales, with about 4 exceptions). While Baum's child protagonists tended to be little girls, Thompson's were boys. She emphasized humor to a greater extent than Baum did, and always considered her work for children, whereas Baum, while first and foremost considering his child audience, knew that his readership comprised all ages. Thompson's last Oz story, The Enchanted Island of Oz(1976), was not originally written as an Oz book.