From School Library Journal
Grade 5 Up-Ozma, beloved ruler of Oz, has her hands full in this spin-off from two confirmed Oz aficionados. Trouble starts right away when Omby Amby notices a gray hair in his green beard. When he complains to Ozma, he discovers that everyone else seems to be aging as well. Before long, their ruler consults with Glinda, who offers more pieces of the puzzle, including a baby named Zoey, who is also the Man Who Lives Backwards. The rest of Ozma's adventures rest on the broad shoulders of Tempus, a Parrot-Ox that appears whenever one begins to imagine the impossible. Ozma's flying time machine and companion, he is a wonderful creature, chock-full of personality, and the other characters are all fairly true incarnations of Oz inhabitants. The writing is crisp and moves the episodic story along effortlessly. This is a handsome book, with plenty of white space and charming full- and half-page black-and-white cartoons. The nodding reference to M. C. Escher in the depiction of Absurd City and the attractive endpapers featuring tessellating black-and-white parrots are a lovely touch. The tone of the text and sophisticated wordplay suggest that the book would be a better read for adult Oz fans, since children may become lost in the muddle of paradoxes and overly clever double talk that leave the plot sounding more like Piers Anthony than L. Frank Baum. Still, if your readers can't get enough of Oz, this should be on the shelves.
Patricia A. Dollisch, DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.