Originally published in The Baum Bugle, vol. 62, no. 1 (Spring 2018), pg. 38
Citations
Chicago 17th ed.:
Campbell, Nick. Review of Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story of The Wizard of Oz, Baum Bugle 62, no. 1 (2018): 38.
MLA 9th ed.:
Campbell, Nick. Review of Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story of The Wizard of Oz, The Baum Bugle, vol. 62, no. 1, 2018, pp. 38.
(Note: typographical errors have been left in place to accurately reflect the printed version.)
TOTO: THE DOG-GONE AMAZING STORY OF THE WIZARD OF OZ by Michael Morpurgo. Illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark. 284 pages. HarperCollins UK, 2017. Hardcover, $17.99. ISBN: 9780008252564. Available at www.amazon.com.
Perhaps, with the success of Wicked and its alternate perspective on Oz, it should be no surprise that 2017 saw not one but two retellings from the pen of Dorothy’s dog himself. In the Autumn 2017 Bugle, Ron Baxley Jr. gave Toto’s Story by Steve Metzger a broadly positive review, recommending it to young readers “who are not overly precocious” of roughly seven years. Award-winning British children’s author Michael Morpurgo also aims for a younger reader with this title, a follow-up to 2015’s Pinocchio by Pinocchio. Indeed, the whole story is narrated by Papa Toto to get his puppies off to sleep, and this cozy little novel would surely lull young humans in just the same way.
Respect is shown to Baum, with Kalidahs, field mice and Guardian of the Gates all present if sometimes broader in tone (“So long you guys,” says the stork, “Be happy”). Dorothy is wonderfully spirited in both happiness and in anger, as when she exclaims “I have had enough!” moments before grabbing a bucket of water. That the spirit of the original survives— going back to Papa Frank’s own bedtime storytelling—reflects Morpurgo’s long experience with myths and folktales, including the story of Beowulf. The author has not restrained himself in amending the tale to speed it along, accentuating its fairy tale structure. His biggest changes are to the resolution, where Morpurgo’s Wizard refuses outright to hand out silk hearts and bottled courage: “What clumsy and pointless magic that would be,” he says, to this reader’s approval.
Toto himself is recognizably doggy. Utterly devoted to his mistress, he consoles her in the Witch’s castle by nuzzling her cheek and licking her ear. He constantly follows his nose: the Good Witch smells like syrup, the Wicked Witch of vinegar, and the Scarecrow of farm workwear, pipe tobacco and mice. He’s constantly hungry too, admitting that he and the Lion were thinking more of “lovely delicious green sausages” than of meeting the Wizard.
The book is an accomplished feat of storytelling. Morpurgo is one of the UK’s bestselling and best-known children’s writers (twice awarded by the Queen for services to literature!), making this the highest profile Oz book published there for many years. Nonetheless, the book can’t help but feel somewhat redundant. Unlike Beowulf or Pinocchio, Baum’s Wizard doesn’t really require adaptation for young children. Morpurgo’s own embellishments are the most interesting aspects of the book, and greater liberties might have distinguished it better.
The book’s greatest strength lies in its illustrations by Emma Chichester Clark, another big name in British children’s publishing and student of the famed Quentin Blake. Toto is illustrated in colour throughout, and Chichester Clark’s illustrations fill it with gorgeous warmth and child-like exuberance. Her animals are, perhaps, her best, with Toto particularly well-served. He’s the star of the show in this engaging if non-essential retelling: brave, loving, wise and heroic in his own small way.
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