The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Wizard's power gives these items a focus for their desires. The Wizard decides to take Dorothy and Toto home and leave the Emerald City. At the send-off, he appoints the Scarecrow to rule in his stead, which he agrees to do after Dorothy returns to Kansas. Toto chases a kitten in the crowd and Dorothy goes after him, but the tethers of the balloon break and the Wizard floats away. Dorothy summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and Toto home, but they explain they cannot cross the desert surrounding Oz. The Soldier with the Green Whiskers informs Dorothy that
Ozma of Oz – and especially to the Dorothys – this book is lovingly dedicated." It has been five years since "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" took place. Uncle Henry has been ordered by his doctor to take a vacation from the stress and labor of having to replace the Kansas farmhouse due to the first one being swept away in a cyclone. He is accompanied by his adolescent niece, Dorothy Gale (this is the first of the Oz books in which the reader learns her last name), while aboard a small steamship headed to Australia while Aunt Em and Dorothy's pet dog