This is my favorite of all the Oz books. Of course, this has in no small part to do with the fact that the Tin Woodsman is my favorite of all the Oz characters.

The Tin Woodsman is one of my favorite Oz characters, too. Still, the whole scene where he has a conversation with his former human head was disconcerting. The metaphysical implications of that scene give me a (pardon the pun) headache.

That's okay, Baum was quite keen on puns.

Board nit: it's "Tin Woodsman", not "Tin Woodman"

A second account of the origin of the Nine Tiny Piglets is given here. The Swynes claim the wee ones are their chlidren, but in book 4, the Wizard says he trades a sailor 9 tickets to the circus for them, the sailor having picked them up on the island of Teeny-Weent.

I think the so-called limitation on Yookoohoo magic is bunk. If you can't undo a change of form, you can change a green monkey into a boy or whatever, or change the monkey into a gorilla and the gorilla into a boy, if necessary.

I also think the heroes' stubornness in dealing with Mrs. Yoop is really dumb (sorry Scarecrow!). According to her, she wanted to transform them into something, anything, just for the fun of it, and even gave them a choice as to what! OK, so, if you're a boy in that situation, say, "I want you to transform me into a boy, a boy with the looks of Leonardo DiCaprio, the genius of Mozart, and the athletic ability of Michael Jordan, wearing an Italian suit with a diamond tie-pin." There. Was that such a bad experience?