Lyman Frank Baum

Tik-Tok of Oz Lyman Frank Baum

Tik-Tok of Oz is the eighth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum, published on June 19, 1914. Ann Soforth, queen of Oogaboo, has grown tired of her tiny remote principality and its "stupid and unenterprising" people. She musters an army, consisting of sixteen officers and a private, and sets out to conquer the Land of Oz. Glinda the Good, surveying her Great Book of Records, learns of Ann's plans. She works a magic spell, so that Ann and her army emerge from their mountain passes into a mysterious, foggy landscape where they encounter a Rak. Betsy Bobbin, an American girl, is washed up on a strange shore after a storm; she is accompanied by her faithful mule Hank. Betsy and Hank find themselves in the Rose Kingdom where sapient talking greenhouse roses inform them that strangers are not allowed. As the Royal Gardener is about to pass sentence on the two, the Shaggy Man crashes through the greenhouse roof. He charms the Gardener into benignity with his Love Magnet. The roses, who have no hearts and are thus immune to the Magnet, demand the travelers leave; they do so, taking with them the newly-plucked Rose Princess Ozga, a cousin of Ozma.