Books: The Patchwork Girl Of Oz By L. Frank Baum

SPOILER ALERT: Skip this bit if you haven’t read the book and are planning to do so!

Ojo, known as Ojo the Unlucky, lives in poverty with his laconic uncle Unc Nunkie in the woods of the Munchkin Country in Oz.  They visit their neighbour, the magician Dr. Pipt who is about to complete the six-year process of preparing the magical Powder of Life, which can bring inanimate objects to life.  Pipt’s wife has constructed a life-sized stuffed girl out of patchwork and wishes her husband to animate her to serve as an obedient household servant.  They also meet another of Pipt’s creations, Bungle, an extremely vain talking cat made of glass.  The Powder of Life successfully animates the patchwork girl, but an accident causes both Pipt’s wife and Unc Nunkie to be turned to stone.  Dr. Pipt tells Ojo that he must obtain five ingredients to make a compound to counteract the petrifaction spell.

Ojo and the patchwork girl, who calls herself Scraps, along with Bungle, embark on a journey to obtain the magic ingredients: a six-leaved clover, the wing of a yellow butterfly, water from a dark well, a drop of oil from a live man’s body, and three hairs from a Woozy’s tail.  Scraps exhibits a wild, carefree personality, and is prone to a spontaneous recitation of nonsense poetry.  After several adventures, they meet a Woozy, a blocky quadruped who agrees to let them have three hairs from its tail.  But they are unable to remove the hairs, so they take the Woozy along with them.

The party is captured by large animate plants, but they are rescued by the fortuitous arrival of the Shaggy Man.  He leads them to the Emerald City to meet Princess Ozma but warns Ojo that picking a six-leaved clover is forbidden by law in Oz.  Along the way, they meet the Scarecrow, who is quite smitten with Scraps, as she is with him.  Just outside the Emerald City, Ojo sees a six-leaved clover by the road and, believing himself to be unobserved, picks it.  When they arrive at the city gates, the Soldier with the Green Whiskers approaches them and announces that Ojo is under arrest.

Brought to trial before Ozma, Ojo confesses and Ozma pardons him and allows him to keep the clover.  Dorothy and the Scarecrow join Ojo and Scraps as they continue their search for the remaining ingredients. Along the way, they meet Jack Pumpkinhead, the playful but annoying Tottenhots, and the man-eating 21-foot-tall giant Mr. Yoop, before reaching the subterranean dwellings of the Hoppers, who each have just one leg, and the neighbouring Horners, who each have one horn on their head.  The two groups are on the verge of war due to a misunderstanding, but Scraps reconciles them.  A grateful Horner leads the group to a well in a dark radium mine, and Ojo collects a flask of water from it.

The group continues to the castle of the Tin Woodsman who rules the Winkie Country, since yellow butterflies are most likely to be found in that yellow-dominated quadrant of Oz.  While talking to the Tin Woodsman, Ojo notices a drop of oil about to drip from his body, and he catches it in a vial.  He explains that he now has all the ingredients except one.  But when he describes the last one, the Tin Woodsman is horrified at the idea of killing an innocent butterfly and forbids them from doing so in his realm.  Ojo is devastated, but the Tin Woodsman proposes that they all travel back to the Emerald City to ask Ozma’s advice.

Ozma tells them that Dr. Pipt has been practising magic illegally and has therefore been deprived of his powers.  But the petrified Unc Nunkie and Pipt’s wife have been brought to the Emerald City and as they all watch, the Wizard of Oz restores them to life.  Ojo and Unc Nunkie are given a new house to live in near the Emerald City and the Tin Woodsman calls Ojo “Ojo the Lucky”.

Read more about The Patchwork Girl Of Oz here.

The above articles were sourced from Wikipedia and are subject to change.