Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz (1939) is the thirty-third in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the nineteenth and last written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was illustrated by John R. Neill. The phrase "The Wizard of Oz" was included in the title to coincide with the MGM film "The Wizard of Oz", which was released the same year the book was published. As such, the focus of the story is on characters who appeared in the first book. Thompson focuses the book most strongly
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was exposed to many people, so the inspiration for the story could have been taken from many different aspects of his life. In the introduction to the story, Baum writes that "it aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out." This is one of the explanations that he gives for the inspiration for "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". Baum, a former salesman of china, wrote in chapter 20 about china that had sprung to life. The original illustrator of the novel, W. W. Denslow, could