Speedy in Oz is the twenty-eighth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...

 and his successors, and the fourteenth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson

Ruth Plumly Thompson

Ruth Plumly Thompson was an American writer of children's stories.-Life and work:An avid reader of Baum's books and a lifelong children's writer, Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began her writing career in 1914 when she took a job with the Philadelphia Public Ledger; she wrote...

. It was Illustrated by John R. Neill

John R. Neill

John Rea Neill was a magazine and children's book illustrator primarily known for illustrating more than forty stories set in the Land of Oz, including L. Frank Baum's, Ruth Plumly Thompson's, and three of his own. His pen-and-ink drawings have become identified almost exclusively with the Oz series...

.

This book features yet another island which floats in the sky: Umbrella Island, which flies by virtue of a huge umbrella with lifting and shielding powers. The king unfortunately bumps the island into a giant's head. Loxo, the great brute, demands the King's daughter, whom he mistakes for a boy, as a servant to lace his huge boot

Boot

A boot is a type of footwear but they are not shoes. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle and extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the sole, even if the two are made of one piece....

s. However, he grants the Umbrella Islanders six months to train the child to be a bootlacer.

Meanwhile, Speedy (from The Yellow Knight of Oz

The Yellow Knight of Oz

thumb|200px|Cover of The Yellow Knight of Oz.The Yellow Knight of Oz is the twenty-fourth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the tenth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was illustrated by John R. Neill....

) returns for another adventure. While inspecting a dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 skeleton, Speedy is blown by a geyser into the air. The skeleton comes magically to life and becomes Terrybubble, a live dinosaur skeleton. Terrybubble and Speedy land on Umbrella Island. Speedy develops a friendship with the Princess Gureeda, who reads constantly. He also becomes friendly with the island's resident wizard, Waddy. An unscrupulous minister, however, hatches a plot to compensate the giant by handing Speedy over to him as a slave (as Speedy and Gureeeda look very much alike and could pass for fraternal twins).

Aside from a brief consultation with Princess Ozma

Princess Ozma

Princess Ozma is a fictional character in the Land of Oz, created by L. Frank Baum. She appears in every book of the series except the first, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz .She is the rightful ruler of Oz, and L...

and her advisers in one chapter, the book deals exclusively with characters of Thompson's creation.

External links

• On Speedy in Oz