The Gnome King of Oz

Ruggedo the Gnome King has escaped from Runaway Island, and Oz will never be the same. Vengeance is brewing in the mountain caves, and the old king has new sorcery to unleash upon the magical land. But Oz has heroes too: Peter, an ordinary boy from Philadelphia who stumbles into the adventure of a lifetime, and Scraps, the irrepressible Patchwork Girl, who refuses to stay quietly kidnapped. Along with Grumpy the Bear and Ozweld the Ozstrich, they race to save the Emerald City before Ruggedo's dark magic takes hold. The final stand comes down to one impossible thing: a boy and his baseball. Ruth Plumly Thompson was just getting started with her Oz novels when she wrote this one, and it shows. The prose crackles with energy, the inventions pile one upon another, and there's a mischievous joy in the storytelling that feels entirely its own. It captures exactly what makes the Oz books endure: a world where courage comes in strange packages and the impossible is just another Tuesday.