The Shaggy Man of Oz is the thirty-eighth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the second by Jack Snow. Jack Snow modernised Oz, so this book has airplanes and TV screens, but he otherwise based his work strictly on Frank Baum's original material.
Abbadiah and Zebbidiah Jones are twins from Buffalo, New York; they prefer to go by their nicknames, Twink and Tom. While the twins are watching the TV one afternoon, the normal picture changes into a strangely beautiful scene with a castle in the background. They are confronted by a living toy clown, a duplicate of the familiar toy they have named Twoffle. This living version, who calls himself Twiffle, persuades them to walk into the screen before them; the two children find themselves magically transported into Oz where they meet Princess Ozma, the Nome King, the King of the Fairy Beavers and many other beloved places and characters from Frank Baum's original Oz books, and some from "John Dough and the Cherub" also by Frank Baum.
By : Jack Snow (1907 - 1956)
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During the past few years, several readers have written me asking: "What ever happened to the Nome King's tunnel under the Deadly Desert?" The answer will be found in this book.
Everyone who has read the Oz books knows and loves Shaggy. He first met Dorothy in "The Road To Oz," and from that time on had a number of adventures in which he discovered such famous Oz personages as the Patchwork Girl, Ojo, Unk Nunkie, the Glass Cat, Betsy Bobbin and her Mule Hank, and many others.
So, it is about time that the Shaggy Man had an Oz book all his own—and here it is—faithfully recorded from the latest messages received from the Land of Oz.
Incidentally, you will recall that after Glinda laid down her Barrier of Invisibility, the only manner of communication between Oz and the Great Outside World was by radio. Well, now, your author of the Oz books has succeeded in tuning in the Emerald City on a specially built television set—his "magic picture." This has helped a great deal in the writing of this book—but not nearly so much as your own letters. So don't forget to write and tell me all your thoughts about the Land of Oz and the equally interesting countries surrounding it. Just now, important things are happening there which I hope to tell you about in another Oz book.
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