So, if we are talking about continiations of the Oz, I really what to introduce to you some Soviet books... Called "The Wisard of the Emerald Town". Sounds familliar, right? So, some Soviet autors, while trying to translate other books, apparantly went crazy, and created their own retelling of the story, with similar characters, but sometimes entirly diffrent story and meaning (like, original Pinocchio and Soviet "Buratino" have almost nothing in common, but main character being made from wood by Carlo). So, "The Wisard if the Emerald town" is the retelling, and this story is known amongst the russian-speaking kids way better, then the "The Wisard of Oz" (I, for example, only read the Oz in the middle school, as it was our summer homework for English classes). But it does not end there. The autor (Alexandr Volkov) desided not to stop there and wrote... Eight sequels. The last one features alien race attaking "Magical Land" (the name of the "Oz" in the retelling), and the conflict is solved by starting a revolution of the oppressed class of alinens. Yep. Oh, and Scarescrow becomes the leader of the Emerald tower in these series.
Sorry for hijacking your asks with this (probably poor written) infodump about my favorite childhood book...😓
I have learned So much in So little time and I don't know how to handle this information
So the first book is NEARLY identical to Wizard of Oz, but after that the series goes off rails immediately and completely. Although I'd say it stays ON the rails more like, because from what I read of Oz it goes HARD on whimsical weird fairy creatures, while the Wizard of Emerald Town sequels feature such fantastic beings as:
- Giants
- Talking animals
- I'm pretty sure that's it. All the other new characters are just human.
The series features no less than three revolutions - first the place gets conquered by a guy who randomly became able to animate wood and immediately made himself an army of wooden soldiers (the protagonist gets a message asking her to come and help, and her uncle comes with her on a balloon and they lead a rebellion), then the protagonist gets lost in a cave system and comes out in magic land's underground ruled by a cruel and unjust monarchy which they proceed to overthrow (this is honestly just a stock soviet kid lit plot), and then in the last book. That one. Also the wooden army guy ended up retiring, regretting his warmongering ways, and was eventually an ally.
Also the protagonist is inexplicably named Ellie instead of Dorothy, and eventually stays home with her parents as she grows up, and the adventures are taken over by her little cousin Annie and iirc her best friend boy.
It's a completely and fully different genre than the Oz books, and the fact that basically the same first book leads to both equally organically blows my fucking mind.