Merry Go Round in Oz (Oz, #40) by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Merry Go Round in Oz (Oz, #40) Reviews

• 
  Marietta

  I have read this book so many times since I was a kid - love it every time! And the illustrations are wonderful.
• 
  Earth&Silver

  I probably would not have been QUITE as fond of this book if this was actually my first time through. But I had read it before - repeatedly - as a child, in a library which has since closed down, and I've been looking for a copy to revisit it for YEARS. And opening it up again was like coming home.
  
  I think Eloise McGraw struck a pretty reasonable balance between the whimsical style of the Oz books and her natural writing style. The plot threads came together nicely, some of the descriptions were Delicious, Flitter is excessively cute (there is probably a reason I am still periodically sketching him after more than a decade), and Robin? Robin's one of mine. I think I'd adopted the kid a long time ago and forgot how much I missed him with his joy and his wonder and his worry, his love of horses and daydreams of knight-errantry. I strongly suspect that intro with the Merry-Go-Round influenced a number of kid-me's daydreams.
  
  Yes it was rather silly as well, but if you can't take a bit of silliness, why read in the Oz setting?
• 
  Fraser Sherman

  Of the "famous forty" canonical Oz books, this is easily the best of the post-Baum books. McGraw's a much stronger plotter than most of the Oz writers and never lets the book just turn into a journey from oddball kingdom to oddball kingdom (though she has those — the prissy little kids of Good Children Land are a hoot).
  This starts out with three plot strands. The page boy Fess leads a party out of the knightly kingdom of Halidom to recover three lost magical McGuffins. Robin, a boy from Oregon, arrives in Oz riding a merry-g0-round horse, which of course comes to life (it's Oz. That stuff happens a lot). And finally Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion (McGraw writes him well, with a worldly resignation about getting stuck in yet another adventure) visit the Easter Bunny but get lost on the way home. Need I say all the travelers eventually meet up and share adventures?
  I'm glad I revisited this one.
• 
  David Sheward

  This 40th Oz book offers the most detailed depiction of a segment of the Oz population, a kingdom of knights and jousting. The plotting is fairly good, and superior to John R. Neil's haphazard adventures in The Wonder City of Oz and Scalawagons in Oz. Three separate parties (a lost innocent from the outside world riding a merry-go-round horse come to life, a royal party from the Renaissance Faire kingdom and Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion, straying from a visit to the Easter Bunny) eventually join up to retrieve three stolen magical rings. The villains aren't particularly menacing. The worst that happens to the adventurers is being beset by a town of "good children" and their nannies who force them to take naps and eat boiled parsnips.
• 
  JHM

  I checked this out of the library when I was in early elementary school (sometime between 1970 and 1974), and even now I remember it fondly. It was one of my favorite Oz books and one of the most memorable. For years afterward, when I rode a merry-go-round I would hope that it would start spinning faster and send me off to Oz.
• 
  Abigail

  This is a decent book, but it doesn't really feel like Oz to me. I think that's partly the plot elements--a lot of traditional fairy tale aspects--and partly the writing style, which just isn't loosy-goosy enough. The Cowardly Lion also does not feel in character. I do like the ending.
• 
  Adaline Griffiths

  In this book there are two main parties. A foster boy named Robin with a broken merry-go-round horse and him unexpectedly find themselves in OZ. Asking directions, Robin and Merry set off for the Emerald City. But they find trouble ahead-will they be able to escape their circle prison? Meanwhile Fess is a young boy training to be a knight in Halidom. When the 3 national treasure's are stolen the Halidom population is hysterical. Without the only remaining item they won't be able to do anything. So Fess steps off with Prince Gules, the Unicorn, his flittermouse and a proud horse called Fred. Will the group be able to find the stolen rings before it is too late? Will Robin and Merry escape their own prison? I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.
• 
  hpboy13

  As clever, charming, and fun as any of the original Oz books, this one is a real gem! I loved reading it!
  
  ETA 2018: Merry Go Round in Oz is, far and away, the best post-Baum Oz book. The story is both elegant and engrossing. The characters are both well-developed and sympathetic – within a paragraph of meeting Robin, you want to give him a hug. The new fantastical elements and little kingdoms fit in perfectly with Baum’s Oz, a superb blend of whimsy and satire. And for lots of bonus points, the ultimate villain is the patriarchy.
• 
  Anne

  I found the prose clunky and the whimsy more than a little strained. I got the impression that the author was trying to do something that didn't come naturally to her. I have very much liked some of McGraw's other books, so I'd have been interested to see what she could do with Oz a bit more in that direction.
  
  It's possible that I'd have liked this a lot better if I'd happened on it when I was younger. I'm almost fifty now, and I have different expectations than I did at, say, age ten.