Dogged Perseverance (original) (raw)

Yankee in Oz, by Ruth Plumly Thompson – When I first joined the International Wizard of Oz Club, I was excited to learn that not only did they sell many of the official Oz books I hadn’t read yet, but a few others I hadn’t even heard of. This one was published in 1972, although the mention of Hurricane Hannah and references to the space program prior to NASA imply it’s set in 1959, and there seem to be some elements of an intended direct sequel to Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz that she’d been working on even earlier. It’s very much in her typical style, especially of her later Oz books that tend to only focus on a few characters. It does feel a bit slight, but it’s not like I’ve compared the word count to that of her other Oz work or anything. Thomas P. Terry, a boy from Pennsylvania, is blown to Oz by the hurricane, and meets Yankee, a bull terrier who had been sent into space to orbit the Moon, and landed in a lake in the Winkie Country. I feel like Tompy is a somewhat exaggerated character, as not only is he a drumming prodigy, but also plays other instruments and is really good at sports. Yankee has a very bouncy personality, as befits a dog. I understand he was named after Thompson’s neighbor’s pet. They first visit Wackajammy, a kingdom known for baked goods that can no longer operate because the king’s Aunt Doffi, who manages everything, has gone missing. The two then travel through Tidy Town, an efficient community where the leader makes and revives the inhabitants by mixing powders, a bit of typical Ozian whimsy mixed with the post-war uneasiness toward overly sanitized suburbs and such.

On Upandup Mountain, Tompy and Yankee meet Jinnicky, and help him to rescue both Aunt Doffi and Ozma and her court from a giant called Badmannah the Terrible. The magic magnifying glass and drag net that he uses to steal princesses and castles is reminiscent of Loxo’s magic magnet in Speedy, although he didn’t seem to use it that much. The most memorable thing about Badmannah might be that Dick Martin draws him with a smiley face and crossbones on his lapel pocket in one picture and a smiley face bandana in another, neither of which are mentioned in the text.

A lot of Jinnicky’s magic in this one is based on tossing a crystal ball from one hand to the other. And it appears that Thompson hopes you’ve forgotten that the Jinn used to keep slaves, as here he describes the economic system in the country he rules as “share and share alike with enough for everyone!” One aspect of the book that fits the time when it was written but comes across as a bit out of place in an Oz story is the level of American patriotism, with even the inhabitants of fairyland being amazed at some of what the United States has accomplished. Jinnicky is shocked that Yankee was able to orbit the Moon, even though his countryman Mr. Tinker had gotten there with a ladder. Even though Tompy and Yankee make friends in Oz, they seem a little dismissive of much of the land, and are constantly complaining that no one wants to hear their story. And all three protagonists are rather boisterous guys. Maybe if Aunt Doffi participated in more of the book, she’d balance that out somewhat.

So it’s not one of my favorites, but it’s still typical Thompsonian fun. The fact that there’s no reference in history books of the United States sending a dog named Yankee into space kind of messes with my willing suspension of disbelief. Tompy uses a bit of Jinnicky’s magic to convince the Air Force to let Yankee live with him, so maybe that magic had the secondary effect of erasing the dog and his mission from the news.

While the book doesn’t really have that much of a legacy, one minor character, Su-Posy, shows up again in Melody Grandy’s Seven Blue Mountains trilogy as Zim‘s sister.

This entry was posted in Animals, Art, Book Reviews, Characters, Conspiracy Theories, Dick Martin, History, Humor, L. Frank Baum, Magic, Magic Items, Melody Grandy, Music, Oz, Oz Authors, Places, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Space Program and tagged aunt doffi, badmannah, crystal balls, dogs, drag net, fern greenleaf, giants, loxo the lucky, moon, ozma, ozma of oz, ozoplaning with the wizard of oz, slavery, smith and tinker, speedy in oz, su-posy, the seven blue mountains of oz, tidy town, tompy terry, upandup mountain, wackajammy, yankee, yankee in oz, zim greenleaf. Bookmark the permalink.