When I was a kid, they put the film version of The Wizard of Oz on the tube pretty often. We had a fancy version of the hardcover book around too. The story was formative for me in a whole bunch of subtle ways.

Some time later, I became aware that there were sequels, and a lot of them, first written by Lyman Frank Baum himself, and then by many other authors deputized by his estate.

In the first paragraph of the first sequel, called The Marvelous Land of Oz, we meet someone new, an Oz native living in the northern Gillikin country. The character is introduced as “a youth called Tip” and the second paragraph says this boy lives with a sort of literal evil stepmother, a witch named Mombi.

Over the course of the novel, stuff happens and new characters are introduced–some old ones like the Scarecrow reintroduced–it’s a decent plot for a kid’s book.

But in the last few pages things get more interesting. Spoilers ahead. Glinda the Good Witch states the facts to Tip:

“You are not a girl just now,” said she, gently, “because Mombi transformed you into a boy. But you were born a girl, and also a Princess; so you must resume your proper form, that you may become Queen of the Emerald City.”

Tip, like the fine strapping adventurous lad he is, hates the idea passionately, but he ultimately drinks the potion, and consents to be laid upon rose silk cushions, behind significantly pink gossamer curtains, to change back into his original femme and fairy form.

Then they all lived happily ever after.