The Lost Princess of Oz

A coordinated series of disappearances unsettles L. Frank Baum's The Lost Princess of Oz. Dorothy discovers that Princess Ozma has vanished from her bedchamber, and the Magic Picture can no longer locate her because it too is gone. Glinda loses the Great Book of Records and her magical implements; the Wizard's black bag disappears as well. The thefts leave Oz's most capable rescuers without their usual tools.

Far away in the Winkie Country, Cayke the Cookie Cook has lost her jewel-studded golden dishpan. She sets out with the boastful Frogman, unaware that their smaller mystery intersects the royal crisis. From the Emerald City, Dorothy and her friends divide into search parties covering Oz's regions. The largest group travels west through strange communities and encounters Cayke's party.

Clues gradually point toward Ugu the Shoemaker, a craftsman who taught himself powerful magic and withdrew to a remote wickerwork castle. A golden peach pit, Button-Bright's wandering, and the Little Pink Bear's puzzling answers complicate the route to Ozma. Baum builds the quest from parallel searches and missing objects whose connection is initially obscure. Familiar companions supply warmth, but the story's momentum comes from solving how a princess can remain hidden even when magical witnesses insist she is close.