This very short incidental fragment of the Oziverse is a work I would doubtless never have encountered without the wonders of e-book technology, yay technology. The humour relies largely on the funny behaviour of the various sorts of peculiar furriners one might find inhabited a seething American metropolis of the early years of last century; but the most peculiar furriner of all is of course H. M. Woggle-Bug, T. E., of whom too much is never enough. The Woggle-Bug is well known for his addiction to puns, and in the course of this book he is served in kind in a most spectacular fashion:"Presently they came to a tall hedge surrounding the Inner Jungle, and without this hedge stood a patrol of brown bears who wore red soldier caps and carried gold-plated muskets in their hands. 'We call this the bearier,' said Miss Chim, pointing to the soldiers, 'because they oblige all strangers to paws.'"Tish-boom!So you can't so you weren't warned. As much as I enjoy reading Baum's stories about Oz, this story does not take place in the Land of Oz, but rather in our world. The book had some promise as an Alice in Wonderland type story, but fell out of my grace with its flat characters and tiringly repetitive plot. Furthermore, the characters that the giant bug (the Woggle-Bug) meets are stereotypes of non-white people. He uses degrading language, and belittles other cultures. I know that some fans of this book may say that Baum was only a part of the times, but this story has aged horribly because of what I perceive as racist language. This seems to have been written for children, but there is no way I would read this to children, or anyone for that matter.
