Whatever After Special Edition 2 – Abby in Oz

Sarah Mlynowski's Abby in Oz is a fantasy adventure for 9 year olds where a tornado picks up four friends, a tree house and a dog, and drops them all in Oz.

What happens

Abby has a secret. There's a magic mirror in her basement, and the fairy trapped inside it keeps pulling Abby and her little brother into fairy tales. This time, though, the mirror has nothing to do with it.

Abby, her best friends Robin and Frankie, and her sometimes-friend Penny are in Robin's tree house arguing about a school project. Then the sky goes dark, something outside starts roaring like a giant blender, and the whole tree house is lifted into the air.

It comes down beside a yellow road made of bricks. So far, so Oz. But when Dorothy's house falls out of the sky, it lands on the tree house instead of the Wicked Witch of the East. So the witch is alive, very cross, and still wearing the silver shoes they need to get home.

Abby has only seen the film (she's never actually read the book). Frankie has read it, which is handy, even though she's snapping at everyone today and nobody knows why. And Penny would quite like the magic shoes for herself, thank you.

Abby tells it all herself in a chatty, jokey voice. There are lots of "Crumbs!" (her word for when things go wrong, which is often). The girls bicker the way real friends do. Penny spots a pen dot on Abby's T-shirt that nobody else on earth could possibly see!

Half the fun is watching them try not to tell Dorothy what happens in her own story. They are not very good at it. Frankie ends up blurting out that there's a whole series of books about her, and poor Dorothy wonders if she's even real.

It's a great one if your reader already knows the Oz story, because they'll spot every change. And if they don't, Frankie explains it all along the way.

Abby has been into fairy tales before, and those trips get a mention here and there. Everything you need to follow this one is explained as it goes.

What to read next

If they want more of Abby and the mirror itself, try Beauty Queen next. The mirror has gone quiet, and her brother Jonah can't remember a single one of their trips.