
Sky Island
'Sky Island' Summary
Trot, a little girl who lives on the coast of southern California, meets a strange little boy with a large umbrella. Button Bright has been using his family's magic umbrella to take long-range journeys from his Philadelphia home, and has gotten as far as California. After an explanation of how the magic umbrella works, the two children, joined by Cap'n Bill, decide to take a trip to a nearby island; they call it "Sky island," because it looks like it's "halfway in the sky"—but the umbrella takes them to a different place entirely, a literal island in the sky.
Sky Island is another split-color country in Baum's fantasy universe, like the Land of Oz. Divided in halves, blue and pink, Sky Island supports two separate races of beings, the Blues (or "Blueskins") and the Pinkies. The two halves are separated by a region shrouded in fog, which both peoples are reluctant to enter. The three travellers land on the blue side of Sky Island, which is a grim country ruled by a sadistic tyrant, the Boolooroo of the Blues. In Sky Island, as in Oz, no one can be killed or suffer pain, but that doesn't mean one is safe: the Boolooroo's method of punishing disobedience in his subjects is to slice two of his victims into halves using a huge guillotine-type knife, and then join the wrong halves back together, creating very unhappy asymmetrical mixed people. This is called "patching." The Boolooroo threatens to do the same to his new visitors; meanwhile he steals the magic umbrella, keeps the visitors imprisoned, and gives Trot as a slave to his daughters, the Six Snubnosed Princesses (named Cerulia, Turquoise, Sapphire, Azure, Cobalt, and Indigo).
The three protagonists manage to escape from the Blues; penetrating the Great Fog Bank that separates the island's halves and meeting its strange inhabitants, they reach the pink side of the island. The Pink Country is a much friendlier and more relaxed place than the blue side, with cheerful residents. In contrast with the Blues, the Pinkies are ruled by a queen, who is required by law to live very modestly, in poverty, in order to assure that her authority to rule will not cause her to become arrogant. The visitors get a better reception, since they are rather pink in color themselves, albeit of a sadly wan and pale shade. Unfortunately, however, the laws of the Pink Country regarding strangers are ambiguous, and the Pinkies interpret them to require that all strangers must be thrown off the edge of Sky Island. At the edge of the island, just as the Pinkies are about to fulfill the law, Polychrome, the daughter of the rainbow who already knows Button Bright from The Road to Oz, descends from the rainbow to rescue him and his friends. She helps Tormaline, the Queen of the Pinkies, to re-interpret the law in a way which allows the strangers to stay. Polychrome also discovers another quirk in the Pinkies' law: whichever person in the kingdom who has the lightest skin shall be Queen. Since Trot's skin is paler than Tormaline's, Trot becomes Queen of the Pinkies. (Tormaline is delighted to yield to Trot and become an ordinary citizen free from the requirement of poverty).
Trot then uses her new power as Queen to mount an invasion of the Blue Country in order to recover the magic umbrella from the Boolooroo. Cap'n Bill gets captured in battle, and the Boolooroo vows to patch him immediately. The only available "patching partner" is a goat, so Cap'n Bill faces the terrifying prospect of becoming a human/goat patch. Trot must enter the Blue City to rescue him, using a ring of invisibility to conceal herself. Ultimately, with help from a Pinkie-witch, and a friendly Blueskin citizen (there is one), and the goat itself, she manages to rescue Cap'n Bill, and captures the Boolooroo. With the Boolooroo removed from command, the blue army stands down, peace is declared, and Trot becomes "Booloorooess" of the Blues as well as Queen of the Pinkies. The three travelers then return home, more than a little relieved at their escape from Sky Island.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1912Authors

L. Frank Baum
United States
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the Oz series, plus 41 other novels (not inc...
Books by L. Frank BaumDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books

Pinocchio – Die Geschichte vom hölzernen Bengele by Carlo Collodi
Pinocchio, a mischievous wooden puppet, embarks on a series of adventures as he dreams of becoming a real boy. Along the way, he faces temptations, le...

The Story of the Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbit
The Story of the Treasure Seekers is a novel by E. Nesbit. First published in 1899, it tells the story of Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel, and Horace...

The Three Mulla-mulgars by Walter de la Mare
This is a magical tale of three monkey brothers who go in search of their father, and have great adventure along the way.

Glengarry School Days: A Story of Early Days in Glengarry by Ralph Connor
With international book sales in the millions, Ralph Connor was the best-known Canadian novelist of the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. Gl...

Steve and the Steam Engine by Sara Ware Bassett
Embark on a heartwarming adventure with "Steve and the Steam Engine" by Sara Ware Bassett, where the magic of discovery and the power of determination...

Ja och Nej by Helena Nyblom
Helena Nyblom's "Ja och Nej" is a collection of eight fairy tales published in 1908. The stories, written for children, explore themes of duty versus...

The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat
The Children of the New Forest is a children's novel published in 1847 by Frederick Marryat. It is set in the time of the English Civil War and the Co...

Tom Swift and his Airship by Victor Appleton
Tom Swift and His Airship, or, The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud, is Volume 3 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap.

The Wouldbegoods by Edith Nesbit
The Bastable children, first met in The Treasure Seekers, are sent to stay in the countryside; is it large enough to contain their exuberant activitie...

Японские народные сказки (Yaponskie Narodnye Skazki) by Aleksandr Fyodorov-Davydov
This collection of Japanese folk tales offers a glimpse into the rich cultural heritage of Japan. Translated from German into Russian by Aleksandr Fyo...
Reviews for Sky Island
No reviews posted or approved, yet...