The Hidden Valley of Oz
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| Author | Rachel Cosgrove (Payes) |
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| Illustrator | Dirk Gringhuis |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Oz Books |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Reilly & Lee |
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Publication date
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1951 |
| Media type | print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 313 pp. |
| Preceded by | The Shaggy Man of Oz |
| Followed by | Merry Go Round in Oz |
The Hidden Valley of Oz (1951) is the thirty-ninth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors. It was written by Rachel R. Cosgrove and illustrated by Dirk Gringhuis.
The children of the Oz books have a pronounced tendency to behave with unnatural courage and independence. Here in Hidden Valley, Dorothy Gale responds to a plan to attack a fifty-foot-tall cannibal giant with "I think it would be lots of fun." Cosgrove, however, takes pains to cast her own child protagonist, Jam, in a more realistic vein. He often expresses fear at the strange goings-on and creatures around him, and longs to return to his home and parents; his part in the denouement of the plot is fairly modest. He is more like a real child than most Oz children are. Cosgrove even offers oblique acknowledgement that Jam's parents miss him and worry about him through his days-long absence — a rare element in the Oz literature.
Almost every Oz author introduces new characters into the Oz mythos with each book; and the strength and vividness of these characters often determine the success of the book. In addition to Jam, neophyte author Cosgrove provides a range of new characters, including living books and snowmen, a mean-spirited giant, and a rhyming dictionary that spouts verse; but her most striking creations are Percy the white rat and the Leopard with the Changeable Spots.
Cosgrove chose Percy based on her experience in laboratory work; she considered lab rats "fascinating" and "clever." Percy, who calls himself "the personality kid," is an extrovert, a classic American wise guy; he calls everyone "kiddo." Cosgrove liked the character enough to use him again, in her second Oz book, The Wicked Witch of Oz, and in a short story, "Percy and the Shrinking Violet."
The great visual and esthetic triumph in the book, though, is the Leopard with the Changeable Spots. (The other characters call him "Spots" for short.) As his title indicates, the markings on his coat change, both randomly and in response to his feelings. They shift "from pink diamonds, to violet hearts, to spinning pinwheels; and so on and on...from golden snow flakes to silver crosses," plus "green apples" and "pink elephants," "red dots" and "big, black exclamation marks," "blue moons" and "electric lights." When he's in doubt, he produces "blue question marks," and when he is angry he has "brightly colored swords and muskets spinning madly on his back."
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