Handy Mandy in Oz is the thirty-first installment in the Land of Oz book series, and the seventeenth Oz novel written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, released in 1937. Like all of her books, it was illustrated by John R. Neill. It is one of Thompson's final five Oz books in the Famous Forty which failed to have its copyright renewed, thus becoming public domain.
The book's heroine is a seven-armed goat herder named Mandy, who grazes her flock on the slopes of Mt. Mern, a location on the other side of the Deadly Desert which surrounds Oz. One day as she chases one of her goats up the mountain a geyser erupts underneath her, sending her hurdling atop a rock across the desert and crash landing into the tiny kingdom of Keretaria in Oz's Munchkin Country. Here she is startled to see that everyone has two arms, while seven arms are the norm at Mt. Mern; and the king is equally startled by her. She is saved from being put in a museum by Nox the Ox, the "royal ox", who takes a liking to Mandy. Nox is preoccupied by the Keretarian political situation: the rightful king, a boy named Kerry, has disappeared, and the throne has been usurped by his uncle Kerr. The Royal Ox is an unusual creature: his right horn grants wishes, and his left horn offers clues. When a clue indicates that King Kerry can be found at a place called the Silver Mountain, the enterprising Mandy leads Nox on a search for the missing monarch.
The main heroine is not to be confused with Handy Manny.
Tropes
- A Child Shall Lead Them: King Kerry is a young boy in body, although he's The Ageless and is likely much older than he looks.
- Affectionate Nickname: Nox gives Mandy the affectionate nickname of "Handy Mandy", or just "Handy", after her seven arms. It sticks.
- Bad Boss: The Wizard Wutz, who angrily turns his lackeys into potted plants when they displease him.
- Chekhov's Gun: Mandy's magic blue flower, which cushions her falls twice, and the Silver Hammer, which she first finds when Nox's plow digs it up, but is later revealed to house Himself the Elf.
- Cooperation Gambit: Like every other time Ruggedo has teamed up with anyone, he decides to go along with Wutz's plan until he finds the opportunity to take the Magic Belt and betray Wutz. Wutz only wants Ruggedo to show him how to use the belt before planning to dispose of him.
- Deus ex Machina: Himself the Elf provides this, handily defeating Ruggedo and Wutz.
- Distressed Dude: King Kerry, who as a Flat Character is basically a gender-flipped typical royal damsel in distress.
- Evil Uncle: King Kerr, uncle of the rightful king of Keretaria, purposely had his nephew abducted by the Wizard Wutz in order to steal the throne.
- Fantasy World Map: Nox has Mandy draw a quick map of Oz in the dirt when explaining the country to her. It's a map with Munchkin Country in the west and Winkie Country in the east, which was born of a misunderstood map from L. Frank Baum's era that had the directional compass flipped, and is now widely seen as a canonical error.
- Forced Transformation: Ruggedo was turned into a jug in a previous book and is still a jug; by the end of the story both Ruggedo and Wutz are turned into cacti by Himself the Elf. Wutz's minions, including King Kerr, are transformed into moles by Ozma.
- I Choose to Stay: After they find out that Mandy was instrumental in saving Oz, Ozma happily invites her to stay in Oz, while Nox and Kerry beg her to stay. Mandy agrees to return to Oz permanently after spending one last month at Mt. Mern to say her goodbyes and make preparations to bring her goats over.
- Little Miss Snarker: Mandy is quite sassy when she wants to be.
- Loophole Abuse: After reading a sign warning newcomers to Oz about Ozma's ban on practicing magic, Mandy laughs and says she's not "practicing" magic because her magic is already perfect.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Handy Mandy can and does use her arms to wield several weapons, as seen when she makes her bold escape from Keretaria with Nox. In all she uses her seven arms to her complete advantage, making it quite the opposite of a disability.
- Multi-Armed Multitasking: Early on Mandy explains how she uses her arms for different tasks."This iron hand...I use for ironing, lifting hot pots from the stove and all horrid sort of work; this leather hand I keep for beating rugs, dusting, sweeping and so on; this wooden hand I use for churning and digging in the garden; these two red rubber hands for dishwashing and scrubbing, and my two fine white hands I keep for holding and braiding my hair."
- Pardon My Klingon: Nox takes great offense when Mandy calls him a "hoopadoop", though we're never told what that means.
- Rollercoaster Mine: Wutz sends Mandy and Nox to their dungeon via one of these, which gives them a tour of Silver Mountain before depositing them.
- Take Over the World: The Wizard Wutz at least wants to take over all of Oz.
- Unknown Rival: The Wizard Wutz wants to usurp Oscar Diggs as the true Wizard of Oz. Meanwhile no one in the Emerald City has ever heard of Wutz before he pulls his scheme.
- Verbal Tic: Mandy has a few, such as saying "Mmm-mmm!", and stuttering her words, saying things like "Dear-ear!" or "Mercy-ercy!"
- Villain Team-Up: Wutz had one of his spies bring him the jug that Ruggedo was transformed into in hopes of joining forces with the former Nome King.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: In the grand Oz tradition. Mandy and Nox encounter the Topsies in Turn Town, who are always spinning, and the Hookers, who literally have hook-shaped noses.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Other than teaming up with Ruggedo and not kidnapping Ozma, the Wizard Wutz's Evil Plan to steal the most powerful artifacts of Oz mirrors the plan of Ugu the Shoemaker in The Lost Princess of Oz. Thompson, realizing that readers would probably note the similarities, has Trot lampshade this by mentioning how this reminds her of when Ugu did the same thing.
