Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz has built two Ozzy spaceships to present to Princess Ozma. But before he can show them to her, one of them mysteriously takes off with the Tin Woodman, Jellia Jamb, and the Soldier with the Green Whiskers aboard.

The errant spaceship flies to Stratovania where King Strut learns of Oz and decides it really belongs to him-and he wants Jellia to become his wife!

Soar to the Stratosphere with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Wizard of Oz himself, as they attempt to find the missing Ozoplane and save Oz and Jellia Jamb from the clutches of King Strut, in Ruth Plumly Thompson's Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz.

Discover a whole new look for the classic Oz books!

• Terrific new full color cover by Oz illustrator Eric Shanower
• Foreword by Booklist columnist Michael Cart
• ALL of John R. Neill's illustrations - Bigger and better than ever!
• Additional OZOPLANING artwork by Eric Shanower!
• A Hundred Years of Jellia Jamb - Picture Gallery!
• A collection of Thompson poems about the Sky Fairies!

Ruth Plumly Thompson wrote twenty-one volumes in the famous Oz series. She introduced such beloved characters as Jinnicky the Red Jinn, Sir Hokus, Speedy, Terrybubble, and best-loved of all, Kabumpo, the elegant elephant. Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 27, 1891. She had two sisters, Dorothy and Janet, and one brother, Richard. When Thompson was two years old her father became night editor of The New York Times and the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. Her father died suddenly in 1895 and Thompson's mother returned to Philadelphia with the four young children. In 1914 Thompson began writing an elaborate children's page for the Philadelphia Public Ledger. The weekly page contained poems, stories, fables, helpful columns about pets, dolls, toys, and much more. Her first book, THE PERHAPPSEY CHAPS (1918) was a collection of fairy poems from the Public Ledger, and a similar volume of fairy tales, THE PRINCESS OF COZYTOWN, was published in 1922. In 1920 Thompson was contracted by the Reilly and Lee Company to continue the Oz series after L. Frank Baum's death in 1919. Her first Oz book, THE ROYAL BOOK OF OZ (1921), was credited to Baum with the additional byline "Enlarged and edited by Ruth Plumly Thompson." But the book was solely the work of Thompson. In 1921, she gave up her job at the Public Ledger and devoted herself to writing an Oz book each year until 1939. Reilly and Lee also published an omnibus volume of Thompson's Ledger material called THE WONDER BOOK (1929). From the mid-1930s to mid-1940s Thompson worked as editor of the David McKay Company's King Comics, providing an editorial page and short story for almost every issue. She wrote editorials for Ace Comics and Magic Comics, too. David McKay also published Thompson's KING KOJO (1936), originally serialized in the pages of King Comics. In the 1940s and '50s Thompson sold many stories to Jack and Jill magazine and she wrote Jack and Jill's "Perky Puppet" page until Decem