Sky Island (Version 2)

Kids book, Sort of like an English wizard of Oz Some of the narrators were extremely hard to understand.

This book is full of magical adventures similar to those in L Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz. There are rather scary bits, but in the same way as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Oz book. A young boy arrives suddenly near a young girl who is gazing out over the Pacific Ocean. As they introduce themselves, they find they both have nicknames. He is called “Button-Bright” and she is called “Trot”. It turns out that his sudden arrival seemingly out of nowhere has been through travel by his magic umbrella! Although he is from Philadelphia, he has been first to Buffalo, then to Chicago, and on to see the Pacific. All he has to do is open the tatty umbrella and ask it to take him somewhere. He found the magic umbrella in his attic. The children go to Trot’s house, meeting Cap’n Bill who lodges at Trot’s house and then meeting Trot’s mother. After Button-Bright has a snack, they tell the Cap’n about the umbrella. After some discussion and some handiwork by Cap’n, and then some practice, they have rigged up a way for the three of them to travel. They decide to travel to an island which can be seen off in the distance. Cap’n and Trot call the Island “Sky Island”. So, Button-Bright asks the umbrella to Sky Island. They head off. The umbrella goes so swiftly, that they soon near the Island. But instead of getting ready to land, the umbrella goes higher and soars on far beyond the Island! After some discussion when they tell Button-Bright the proper name of the Island, he explains that the umbrella goes to the exact place he names. And because the name was not Sky Island, they are headed to the real one, wherever that may be! And so the adventure has begun. They get in some scrapes- the umbrella is confiscated - and have to use their heads to figure out how to get out of the various troubles. The inhabitants are rather strange in very many ways and not at all happy to have visitors to Sky Island. But one or two become friends who give their help and by the end are given much needed help by the 3 adventurers. Some of the readers were ok, but some made understanding the words very difficult.