History Literature / TheRoadToOz

* VerbalTic: "Don't know" for Button-Bright.

The story begins with a homeless vagabond called the Shaggy Man wandering past the Kansas farm where Dorothy Gale lives. He asks for directions, and while Dorothy is showing him the way, Dorothy turns to walk back home only to be surrounded with dozens of roads. They can do nothing else but pick one and see where it goes. Along the way they meet a boy named Button-Bright and later encounter Pollychrome, the Rainbow's daughter.

* FairyCompanion: Pollychrome becomes this when she joins the group.

* InSeriesNickname: Dorothy calls Pollychrome "Polly."

* MeaningfulName: Pollychrome's name is Greek for "multicolored" as opposed to Monochrome

* MoodSwinger: Pollychrome is usually the happiest, most cheerful person around, laughing and dancing about without a care -- but when she's lost, lonely or upset, she'll cry loudly and declare herself "the most miserable girl in the world." Only to be all smiles again when someone shows her any amount of kindness.

The story begins with a homeless vagabond called the Shaggy Man wandering past the Kansas farm where Dorothy Gale lives. He asks for directions, and while Dorothy is showing him the way, Dorothy turns to walk back home only to be surrounded with dozens of roads. They can do nothing else but pick one and see where it goes. Along the way they meet a boy named Button-Bright and later encounter Polychrome, the Rainbow's daughter.

* MeetYourEarlyInsyallmentWeirdness: In an illustration, John R. Neill lampshades how different his drawings of Dorothy and Toto are from W. W. Denslow's by showing them examining a statue of their earlier selves in the Tin Woodman's garden: [[http://newwwoz.blogspot.com/2009/02/john-r-neill-appreciation-volume-1.html Scroll down in this blog post]].

''The Road to Oz'' is the fifth book in Creator/LFrankBaum's ''Franchise/LandOfOz'' book series, published in 1909 and featuring Dorothy's third visit to the mythical land of Oz.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: the Shaggy Man never given any name other than "The Shaggy Man" or occasionally "Shaggy." Even his brother doesn't address him by any other name.

The travelers visit a city of foxes and one of donkeys, whose leaders ask Dorothy to invite them to Princess Ozma's birthday party. They meet the Musicker and the Scoodlers and eventually, with the help of Johnny Dooit, cross the Deadly Desert into the Land of Oz.

* MoodSwinger: She's usually the happiest, most cheerful person around, laughing and dancing about without a care -- but when she's lost, lonely or upset, she'll cry loudly and declare herself "the most miserable girl in the world." Only to be all smiles again when someone shows her any amount of kindness.

* GotMeDOingIt: Dorothy almost answers a question with "Don't know" thanks to Button-Bright's overuse of the phrase, but stops herself.

* FairyCompanion: pollychrome becomes this when she joins the group.

* UseYourHead: The main attack of the villainous Scoodlers is to fling their heads at their opponents, which backfires when Shaggy Man tosses their heads into a chasm one by one.

* ISophagus: The Musicker, who makes music when he breathes, presumably because he swallowed an accordion.

* ISophagus: The Musicker, who makes music when he breathes, presumably because he swallowed an accordion.
* FunnyAnimal: The fox city and the donkey city have these.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: It was established in the previous book that if Dorothy makes a hand signal at 4pm Ozma will teleport her to Oz. She never thinks to do this. It later turns out Ozma had been watching the whole time, and actually caused Dorothy's journey in the first place with her magic. The thought had crossed the Princess's mind to rescue them a couple times, of course, but they found their own ways out of their predicaments.

* ThisPlotCouldHaveBeenAvoided: It was established in the previous book that if Dorothy makes a hand signal at 4pm Ozma will teleport her to Oz. She never thinks to do this. It later turns out Ozma had been watchign the whole time, and actually caused Dorothy's journey in the first place with her magic.

''The Road to Oz'' is the fifth book in LFrankBaum's ''Franchise/LandOfOz'' book series, published in 1909 and featuring Dorothy's third visit to the mythical land of Oz.