With this being “the last Oz book” as Baum originally envisioned, Baum pulled out all the storytelling stops. We had seen him, in Book 5, parade around characters from his other non-Oz books to drum up interest in those with the hopes of sending his fans to his other stories. While reading the book, you can easily see that Baum was closing the door on Oz. With this book, Baum had every intention of ending the Oz series. As a side note, John Neill would go on to write and illustrate several Oz books after Frank Baum died. As I mentioned, John Neill would once again contribute wonderfully detailed illustrations for the book’s interiors. So, the last Oz book, The Road to Oz, was released in 1909 and this book was released the following summer in 1910. Check out Eltanin Publishing for some really nice eBooks. Unfortunately they haven’t released anything further than book 7 but my hopes are high that the rest will come soon. Eltanin is slowly working their way through this series. They are well worth purchasing and you can’t beat the price. I have been supremely happy with Eltanin’s work thus far on the Oz eBooks I’ve read (Books 4, 5 and 6). They have rendered a beautifully edited and formatted text and kept all the original Neill illustrations intact. Like the last book, I picked up the illustrated eBook of this from the B&N Nook Store for. To see my reviews of the first 5 books in this series, click the banner above.

Moving right along in my quest to read all of the original Frank Baum Oz novels.

The emerald city of oz 1910