The Surprising Adventures of the Magical Monarch of Mo and His PeopleDownload Now...
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Customer Review: Second Tier Short Stories
This is one of L. Frank Baum's earliest works. It's writing predate that of the WIZARD OF OZ but it was published the same year. It is not as polished a work but it is just as imaginative.
Mo is a kingdom near Oz. It is a happy place ruled by a happy king. It is full of magic features like root beer rivers and custard ponds. Every now and then, some minor trouble arises to keep things interesting. These involve wizards, dragons and rival kings. This book is a collection of short stories about some of these minor mishaps. They are all loosely related but each can be read without any of the others.
The stories are on a more juvenile level than the Oz stories but that does not keep them from being of interest. Baum indulges in his love of the ludicrous and for plays on words with great abandon all through the work.
It will most likely appeal to serious Oz fanatics and very young children.
Customer Review: Wonderful book, terrible edition
First off, let me say that I love the stories in this book; I read it for the first time many years ago. However, I just ordered this edition (Dodo Press), and the printing is terrible. The illustrations look like they are 3rd or 4th generation: very blurry. I appreciate that Dodo is trying to make books available that would not otherwise be available, but it really looks no better than if I typed the book, copied the PDF files of the illustrations, and slapped a cover on it. I returned my copy and bought the Dover edition (which was also cheaper).
Customer Review: Simply fun ... especially fun to read aloud
After having read Sea Fairies. Queen Zixi and Sky Island (all aloud to my 8-year old daughter) I was at first disappointed that this was a collection of often silly - and punny - short stories. I expected a narrative that we could look forward to advancing as the nights continued.
My daughter really enjoyed it. She got caught up in the fantastic, somewhat cartoonish world ... and I found myself wondering what the next surprise might be.
Why did I give it 5 stars when the Oz books, Sky Island, and Island of Yew are clearly better? Not by comparison to those books, but by comparison to the rehashed drivel you find at your bookstore.
Monarch of Mo is fun, reads aloud nicely, and has more depth and innovation than almost everything you will find elsewhere.
Watch your kid(s)' eyes as you read it. They can see this land and the stories unfold.
P.S. No, I am not related. Wish I were.
Customer Review: Delightful memories
These stories are delightful in their quirky, darkly adventurous meanderings. A root beer river, a topsy turvy land where people live upside down, a king who loses his head and a nasty witch outwitted by a beautiful young princess? What child (or adult) wouldn't be drawn into the magical (truly!) land of Mo? I read and reread these stories when I was little, amazed by the wildly imaginative characters and playful settings. I'm surprised the previous reviewer had such a disappointing encounter with this childhood favorite of mine. I would strongly recommend it. I can't, however, attest to the quality of this particular edition as I own an older one.
Product Description
An amazing collection of juvenile short stories, involving wizards and a sadistic dragon. It takes us to the enchanted land of Mo where people do not die and animals can speak. Baum has portrayed the fantastic world with such brilliance and vibrant imagery that we can picture it in mind’s eye. Guaranteed to charm young readers and all who are young at heart. This Super Large 18pt Edition has been optimized for readers with considerable loss of normal vision who prefer intense bold 18pt large type.
Customer Review: An Amusing Collection of Short Stories by the Creator of OZ
The 1899 publication of A NEW WONDERLAND was almost immediately routed by the 1900 publication of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ--and so L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) re-wrote the book, which was re-published in 1903 as THE MAGICAL MONARCH OF MO. The book has no central plot; it is instead a collection of short stories about the Land of Mo, where almost everything is edible.
Needless to say, The Monarch of Mo figures in many of these tales. His head is bitten off by a purple dragon, he is pushed down into a hole by a naughty son, and he is forced to sort out the truth of various claims on several occasions. But the stories also encompass his various sons and daughters, such as the ill-tempered Princess Pattycake, who is wooed by the commoner Timtom, and the beautiful Princess Truella, whose big toe is stolen by an evil wizard for use in a magic potion. Other characters include the wise donkey, the three foolish wise men, a vicious gigaboo, the clever Prince Thinkabit, and many others. It is all very imaginative and very charming in a period sort of way.
Baum's novels tend to bleed over into each other, and readers will enjoy encountering such characters as an iron man and a talking hen, both of which would undergo adaptation and emerge in OZ stories as Tik-Tok and Billina, but parents who wish to read the stories aloud to children should be slightly forewarned. In some respects Baum was a naive man, and he seemed to have a talent for turning a phrase he considered harmless but which startles others. In MO the faux pas occurs in Chapter Twelve, wherein Prince Zingle is wafted by kite to a monkey kingdom and locked up in a zoo. After some consideration a monkey professor announces "I shall write an article on the creature and claim he is a Homo, and without doubt the paper will create a stir in the scientific world." No doubt, indeed!
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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