The Patchwork Girl of Oz

Oz Series

Author: L. Frank Baum

Book 7 in the Oz series

Pages: 340

Published: 1913

Age: 9+

Forced to venture out of the dark forest, Unc Nunkie and Ojo the Unlucky call on the Crooked Magician, who introduces them to his latest creation: a living girl made out of patchwork quilts and cotton stuffing. But when an accident leaves beloved Unc Nunkie a motionless statue, it is up to Ojo to save him. In his search for the magic ingredients that will restore his uncle to life, Ojo is joined by the Patchwork Girl and by the conceited Glass Cat, who boasts of her hard ruby heart, the resourceful Shaggy Man, and the lovable block-headed Woozy, whose tail hairs are just one of the things Ojo needs to restore Unc Nunkie.

As they travel to the Emerald City, home of the wise and powerful Ozma, they meet Dorothy, the kind and sensible girl from Kansas; the gallant Scarecrow; and, of course, Toto. But no one proves more loyal than the spirited Patchwork Girl, who, although she was brought to life as a servant, is determined to see the wide world for herself.

About the Oz Series

Reading age: 9+ years

This series should be read in order.

The Oz books by L. Frank Baum form a series of classic children's fantasy novels that begins with the most famous of Baum's creations, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and relate the fictional history of the Land of Oz and its colourful cast of inhabitants.

Oz was created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen full-length Oz books. Even as he lived, Baum was styled as "the Royal Historian of Oz" to emphasise the concept that Oz is an actual place. The illusion created was that characters such as Dorothy and Princess Ozma related their adventures in Oz to Baum themselves, by means of wireless telegraph.

Aside from the fourteen books that Baum wrote, many other authors over the past century have contributed to the canon of Oz. These include nineteen novels by Ruth Plumly Thompson, three by John R. Neill, two by Jack Snow and two by Rachel R. Cosgrove. In 2005, the Baum Trust authorised Sherwood Smith to create four more official Oz sequels, two of which have been published to date. For the purpose of authenticity, only the first fourteen Oz novels originally penned by Baum himself have been included in our list.