Don't read further if you haven't read to the end of book #1 since this review will spoil you about the events that took place in book #1.

This book was awesome. I have to say that after book #1 I was puzzled what this book would be about and if I would like it as much as book #1 without Dorothy or the Cowardly Lion absent from the story. However, this book I managed to even love more than book #1.

We start off with the main protagonist Tip who carves himself a man made of wood with a head of a pumpkin in order to frighten his guardian, the witch Mombi.

Mombi soon deduces what Tip has done and using a bit of powder she haggled over brings the pumpkinhead to life and promises swift retribution to Tip by telling him she will turn him into a marble statue (harshest punishment ever).

Tip escapes and takes his 'son' Jack Pumpkinhead with him.

Using some of the powder, Tip promptly brings a sawhorse to life and calls it Saw-Horse. I have to say that out of all of the characters I loved Saw-Horse. He got salty with everyone. And kept telling Jack how stupid he was.

Bless his heart, Jack Pumpkinhead is not that smart. Part of me wishes that Dorothy had been along on this journey since I would have liked to see Saw-Horse tell her off too.

Eventually our trio gets to Emerald City and finds King Scarecrow who despite being the most wise ruler ever is actually still pretty dumb. There is a scene between Scarecrow and Pumpkinhead involving an interpreter that had me cracking up. I literally said out loud "How are they not realizing they are answering each other's questions and they don't need an interpreter?"

The peaceful reign of Scarecrow's rule comes to an end though due to an army of 400 women/girls that march on Emerald City demanding to be set free from cooking and cleaning for men. There General is Jinjur. Too bad the women want to also take Emerald city to take possession of the jewels to make bracelets and sell them for gowns. Because women just love sparkly things (eyeroll).

Still you must surrender! exclaimed the General, fiercely. We are revolting!
You don't look it, said the Guardian, gazing from one to another, admiringly.
But we are! cried Jinjur, stamping her foot, impatiently; and we mean to conquer the Emerald City.
Good gracious! returned the surprised Guardian of the Gates; what a nonsensical idea!
Go home to your mothers, my good girls, and milk the cows, and bake the bread. Don't you know it's a dangerous thing to conquer a city?

I wish at this moment that Jinjur had been replaced by Peggy Carter so she would have kicked his butt all over Emerald City.

I quickly cheered though when the women took Emerald City and the Scarecrow flees to his friend, Emperor Tin Woodman who is ruling over the Quadlings.

Eventually we have everyone meeting up again and deciding that their quest is to remove Jinjur from the throne and put the Scarecrow back in his rightful place. Things do not go according to plan though. We meet even more characters and get an appearance by two characters from the last book, the Queen of the Mice and Glinda the good (or as I started calling her Glinda who is a worse witch than even Katrina on Sleepy Hollow.

I have to say that Scarecrow was a jerk throughout this whole story and the Tin Woodman was pretty vain. I wonder how Dorothy would feel meeting up with this duo again and seeing how changed they became. Also they seem to have short term memories since they both got prissy with anyone who mentioned the Wizard of Oz being less than what he was. You would think that one of them being so smart may have realized that the Wizard pulled one over on them as well. Ah well, maybe in the next book.

My favorite character was honestly the Saw-Horse with Tip a close second. Jack Pumpkinhead kept whining about his head and spoiling and I wish someone had turned him into a pie (man being sick has brought out an I am not in the mood attitude today).

The characters felt very real to me and I loved each one of them to pieces and had to crack up by how our merry group started working each other's nerves. I thought that was quite realistic since I probably would have peaced out a while ago and went somewhere to hang out with the China people.

Additionally, I thought that this book flowed much better than book #1. Probably because L. Frank Baum knew how he was going to end it, the trick was getting from point A to point B. The ending took me totally by surprised and I loved every minute of it. It's nice to not be spoiled by a book's ending and I was thrilled to not even guess at it. The ending makes perfect sense too and it also goes to show that the Wizard of Oz was more of a humbug than previously thought in book #1. If he ever shows up in Oz again, I hope that Glinda and crew kicks his butt.

As much as I want to start reading book #3 right now I am going to wait to start when I get two other books from my pile done.