What is this Oz book where the Yellow Brick Road was sabotaged?

Question

I'm trying to find an Oz book that I read as a child, probably sometime in the early 2000s. It's almost certainly not one of the Baum books, and probably didn't follow the Baum canon either.

What I remember: Dorothy (in Kansas) is sent the Silver Shoes, which have lost most of their magic carrying Dorothy over the Deadly Desert, but can be used exactly one (or possibly two or three) more times. Oz is in danger because a protective spell built into the Yellow Brick Road has been damaged, I think by removing one of the Yellow Bricks. Dorothy uses the Shoes to return to Oz and save it from danger.

I remember the book as being rather darker than the typical Oz book, but I don't think it was "adult" the way Wicked is. Or at least if it was, it went over my head as an oblivious elementary school kid.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Answer 1

This sounds somewhat like "Dorothy - return to Oz", a 1993 children's novel by Thomas L. Tedrow, not to be confused with "Return to Oz", the 1985 film, novelized by Joan Vinge.

The main character is called Dorothy, but she is the granddaughter of the original Dorothy Gale of the Oz books, and the story is set in 1993. She goes to live with her grandmother in Kansas, who gives her the ruby slippers (not silver, Tedrow follows the conventions of the MGM film rather than Baum's novels) to travel to Oz. When the original Dorothy had returned from Oz, the slippers fell off, and although she later found them in the wreckage of her home, their power was drained and they could not be used for magical transportation again. According to oz.fandom.com/wiki:

Dorothy manages to activate the Slippers and travels, with little Ozzie the dog, to a rainbow bridge. Awaiting her is a woman named Mother Rainbow, who tells her she must go to Oz and rescue Ura Wizard. Mother Rainbow hands the Golden Ruler to Dorothy, telling her she must deliver it to Ura. She reports that Ima Witch has stolen the Yellow Brick Road, brick by brick, so a new path to the Emerald City must be found.

As you may expect, Dorothy defeats the evil, rescues the wizard, and wakes up in her bed back in Kansas.

Answer 2

This is almost certainly the non-canonical Dorothy of Oz by Roger S. Baum, L. Frank Baum's grandson.

1. The silver slippers have lost most of their magic and can only be used two more times

Dear Dorothy, the silver shoes wil take you to Oz and back home again. The Impassable Desert has taken away much of their power, so they can be used only twice more. Love, Princess Ozma and Glinda

Baum, Roger S., Dorothy of Oz, Books of Wonder, 1989. p. 7

2. Replacing the magical brick that keeps the protection spell in place:

"The secret of the Yellow Brick Road is known by only a few citizens of Oz [...] The Good Witch of the North, at the request of the great and powerful Wizard of Oz, mixed the first brick laid for the Yellow Brick Road with magical ingredients."

ibid, p. 90

As the Queen pushed the brick closer, it glowed a brighter and brighter yellow. Her Majesty pushed and pushed the brick [...] with all of her remaining effort, she pushed the yellow glowing brick one more time. It slid into place. The magical brick's yellow glow spread from one brick in the road to the next.

ibid, p. 102

Other key plot points of this book: The primary antagonist is "The Jester", who derives his power from the Wicked Witch of the West's stolen wand. At one point in the book, Dorothy and friends attempt to escape from a maze that the Jester created before time runs out. Eventually, they trick the Jester, who is turning Oz celebrities into china dolls, and reclaim the wand.

This book is darker that the L. Frank Baum books, and the Jester is a particularly sadistic villain, but it is still a children's book.

The book is available to borrow from the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/dorothyofoz0000baum/

Source: One of the few Oz-inspired books remaining on my bookshelf!