SAY HELLO TO OJO!!!

Last week you met Button-Bright, one of the two heroes of my Oz stories.  Today I’ll introduce you to Button-Bright’s best friend and fellow protagonist, Ojo the Munchkin boy.

 

Of all Baum’s recurring Oz kid characters, Ojo (pronounced Oh Joe, not Oh ho) appears to be the only Oz native.  He makes his debut in the seventh book, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, where he is first seen living deep in the Munchkin forest with his beloved Unk Nunkie.  There’s not enough food to keep them from hunger, so the two set out in search of a better life.  This proves tough to come by.  Things go wrong right off the bat, in fact, for on the second day of their journey Unk Nunkie is accidentally transformed into a marble statue.

 

The story is transformed as well, from a seek-your-fortune adventure into a classic quest. Ojo must find the rare and difficult objects that are required to break the spell, proving himself as brave and indomitable as any hero you could name.  He will take any risk to save his uncle, even going so far as to flout the law of Oz and land himself in the Emerald City’s seldom-used (but very comfortable) jail!  His tireless devotion wins him the respect and affection of Princess Ozma herself, and it is this that saves Unk Nunkie and secures them both a permanent home in the palace.

 

Ojo makes only minor appearances in Baum’s subsequent Oz books – both times in the company of Button-Bright.  Baum presents their friendship as a done deal and then goes on to do very little with it.  I’ve taken this as a license to send the duo on a series of new adventures all their own.

 

On the surface, the two boys might appear to be a mismatched pair.  Ojo is intense, focused, and single-minded in his devotion to those he loves.  He wears his heart on his sleeve and lacks the mysteries and ambiguities that are so much a part of his best friend.  Not that Button-Bright flaunts his boy-of-mystery status.  On the contrary, he seems entirely unaware of it and is probably the most laid-back and easy-going character in all Oz – so much so that he often loses track of his own whereabouts.  You might almost say he’s in need of constant supervision – and perhaps this is what wins the heart of the loyal Ojo.  Or perhaps they just have fun together.  Whatever the reason, they are best friends forever, in spite of the astonishing changes that come their way in my stories.  And that, in a nutshell, is what keeps me writing.  I always want to find out what my boys will do next!

MEET THE BOYS!!!

MEET  THE  BOYS!!!

 

The Boys, as I call them, are Button-Bright and Ojo, the two heroes of my Oz stories.  Readers who never got past The Wizard of Oz probably haven’t heard of them, because the series was well underway before Baum introduced them.  But Oz fans know them and love them, and I hope you will too.

 Today I’ll tell you about Button-Bright, an American boy who made his debut in the fifth book in the series, The Road to Oz.  There are several mysteries associated with Button-Bright.  The first of these is obvious right off the bat:  he is first discovered, a barely verbal tyke of five at the most, lost and alone in the magic lands surrounding Oz.  How did he get there?  He doesn’t know and we never find out.  At the end of the book he is sent home to . . . somewhere.  It’s all strangely nebulous.

 His next appearance occurs in a Baum book called Sky Island.  Sky Island is not, strictly speaking, Oz canon, but it features several once and future Oz characters – including fellow Americans Trot and Cap’n Bill – and it is the essential source for biographical information on our hero.  An older (nine-ish?) and savvier Button-Bright explains that he’s the son of a well-to-do Philadelphia family and that he is now on a jaunt with a family heirloom that unexpectedly turned out to be magical – an umbrella that will take him anywhere he tells it to go (this is long before Mary Poppins, in case you’re wondering).  He and his Magic Umbrella are, in fact, the catalysts for the magical adventure that follows, and over the course of this adventure he proves himself much braver and more resourceful than he or anyone else might have imagined.  At the end of it, a week or so after he’s told the Magic Umbrella to take him back to Philadelphia, his friend Trot gets a post card from him.  He got home fine, he says, but the Magic Umbrella has been confiscated and locked up.

 Now we come to the second big Button-Bright mystery, which is worth a few quotations.  He is next found, again by his old friends Trot and Cap’n Bill, aimlessly wandering the magic lands in The Scarecrow of Oz.  Trot says, “His home used to be in Philadelphia; but I’m quite sure Button-Bright doesn’t belong anywhere.”  Button-Bright agrees, adding, “I’m halfway round the world from Philadelphia, and I’ve lost my Magic Umbrella, that used to carry me anywhere.  Stands to reason that if I can’t get back home I haven’t any home.  But I don’t care much.  This is a pretty good country, Trot.  I’ve had lots of fun here.”

 And that is the last we hear about Button-Bright’s erstwhile home.  At the end of the book he comes to live in the Emerald City, abandoning his old life forever.  What has made this possible?  What is it in Philadelphia that he has let go of so easily?  Why does he seem so completely comfortable with his apparent homelessness?  Again, we never find out the answers.

 For Baum the storyteller, I suspect that it was a purely practical matter.  He’d already brought one American child to live in Oz; and since that famous girl’s Aunt Em and Uncle Henry were too well-known to be left behind, they were brought along as well.  But that was a one-shot deal.  Future American imports would leave their families behind, and if this couldn’t be done sensibly, it would be done in as few words as possible.  “I haven’t any home,” says Button-Bright, summarily disposing of an inconvenient biography.  End of discussion – as far as Baum was concerned.

 

Button-Bright continues to live a happy life in Oz, one in which he becomes famous for one thing:  getting lost.  But some of us can’t seem to leave it at that.  The mystery of Button-Bright is irresistible.  What was the story with his family?  And why does he still get lost?  If you read my stories, you’ll find my own answers to these questions – and others that Baum never thought to ask.