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Halloween in Oz

2007
Author(s): Moser, Leo Nelson, Carol
Illustrator(s): Moser, Leo
Publisher(s): Whitfield & Dodd Publications
Genre(s): Fantasy

Comments:
Dorothy Gale has returned, not only to her fans but to the magical Land of Oz -- and for a visit during the Halloween season, a time when the opportunity for evil witchcraft is at its peak in Oz. The dark forces of greed, envy, and fear are ready to take advantage of the Ozian holiday, and there is time enough for wickedness since Halloween in Oz lasts for a "witch-week" -- thirteen days! This is more than a Halloween book. however; it is BOOK ONE in the Alpimar series of Oz books. Dorothy Gale doesn t believe in ghosts, yet the ghostly voices of her deceased parents seem to invade her dreams coming from a treasured photo of them, a tintype that she had lost in Oz after the tornado. If all this is only a dream, she worries, maybe Oz was, too. Dorothy is angry. Many things anger her. She desperately wants to go back to Oz and find the picture and so prove to herself that Oz does exist, yet there is no way to return. She is being teased by kids at school after foolishly telling them about Oz. She is increasingly annoyed by adults treating her as only a mere slip of a girl while when in Oz she had done so many amazing things. Besides, she reasons, we are entering the twentieth century and women may even get the right to vote! She wants to be treated "even-steven" with the boys, but even her friend Tim seems unable to understand. Dorothy looks forward to Halloween, but besides carving a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern there is little to do to celebrate it in an isolated Kansas farm. Wouldn t it be wonderful to visit Oz for Halloween? But there is no way. Then, during a Halloween night dream, her parents tell her that she is urgently needed in Oz and must return. They warn of great danger, then instruct her how to get there. Upon returning to Oz, Dorothy finds that heroic tasks again await her and the Ozian Halloween lasts an entire witch-week of thirteen days. Mysteries abound. Why does she arrive in Gillikin Land, where she has never been before? Where is that evil that her father warned her about? Who is this mysterious boy with purple hair, who seems to be Tim from Kansas in disguise? Where can the treasured tintype of her parents be? And how can it seem to talk to her? Old friends like Scarecrow, Tin-man, and Lion and new friends like the mysterious boy and her Kansas pumpkin magically brought to life help her and Toto struggle in what becomes a battle to save Oz. Halloween in Oz: Dorothy Returns is a sequel to L Frank Baum's original book, The Wonderful Wizrd of Oz, and to that book alone. This book leads the reader into a new and larger story about Oz and a mysterious and magic-ridden world called Alpimar of which it is a part. In the terms used in fantasy and sci-fi today, the world called Alpimar might be called an "alternative Earth," set in an "alternative dimension," where even the course of time is somewhat askew. But Dorothy Gale uses no such scientific words in trying to understand her experience. She is, of course, a small girl living on a remote Kansas farm in the year 1900 -- the year Einstein graduated from school in Switzerland. Come with us to Oz and begin your thirteen days of Halloween:. Find out how Dorothy came to live in Kansas, leaving her home amid the green hills of Kentucky.. Meet some of the boys who think she is the prettiest girl in school.. Learn why her house was carried off by a tornado, and why it landed where it did.. Meet Punk N. Hedd, Esq., Dorothy's Halloween pumpkin -- magically brought to life.. Realize that while much has been revealed, mysteries still abound in Oz.