Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

A California earthquake replaces the cyclone as the doorway to adventure in L. Frank Baum's Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Dorothy tumbles through a vast crack alongside young Zeb, the kitten Eureka, and cab-horse Jim. Their descent into the center of the Earth separates them from familiar roads and places every step under unfamiliar rules.

The Wizard soon joins them, arriving with nine piglets small enough to fit in his hands. Together they cross a sequence of enclosed worlds. In the Land of the Mangaboos, vegetable people inhabit glass houses that are grown instead of built. Fruit in the Valley of Voe makes its eaters invisible, including the bears that live there, and silent flying gargoyles occupy a country made of wood.

Survival depends on recognizing how each land works before its dangers close in. The journey eventually points toward Oz, but reunion does not end every complication: Jim faces a race against the Sawhorse, and Eureka is accused in a case involving one of the piglets. Baum links underground wonder to comic judgment, giving Dorothy's practical courage a shifting group of companions and problems that cannot all be solved by magic.