''Visitors from Oz: The Wild Adventures of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman'' is an unofficial

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to the Oz book series. Published in 1998, it was written by

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lew ...

and illustrated by Ted Enik. It follows up after the last Oz book written by

L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the ''Oz'' series, plus 41 other novels (not includ ...

. Gardner employs a mathematics puzzle (involving a Klein bottle) to bring the three Oz characters to Earth in 1998, where Dorothy becomes involved in the machinations of two movie producers. Contemporary references to Rudy Giuliani, the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, and television newscasts are unusual, at the least, in an Oz book. Gardner's whimsy encompasses the ancient Greek gods, characters from

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

's 1865 novel ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...

'' and its 1871 sequel ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

'', and an ursine detective called Sheerluck Brown. Gardner's attempt at contemporizing Oz might be compared to Dave Hardenbrook's similar attempt in his ''

The Unknown Witches of Oz ''The Unknown Witches of Oz: Locasta and the Three Adepts'' is a 2000 novel written by Dave Hardenbrook, with illustrations by Kerry Rouleau. The publication of ''The Unknown Witches of Oz'' was timed to coincide with the centennial of the orig ...

'' (2000).

References

* Rahn, Suzanne. ''The Wizard of Oz: Shaping an Imaginary World''. New York, Twayne, 1998. * Tuerk, Richard Carl. ''Oz in Perspective''. Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2007.

External links

1998 American novels Books based on The Wizard of Oz Books based on Alice in Wonderland Works by Martin Gardner 1998 children's books Sequel novels {{Oz-stub