Toto of Oz and the Surprise Party
By Roger S. Baum
Illustrated by Victoria Seitzinger

    I have always loved Toto -- who wouldn’t? He’s loyal, brave, feisty and small, the perfect little kid hero, since he doesn’t let his size keep him from taking on the bad guys. So I really wanted to love Toto of Oz and the Surprise Party.

    It’s certainly lively enough for a young reader. Toto tumbles down a hill, mixes it up with some very cranky bees, and swims a river. Where the book falls short is in giving Toto an experience worthy of the things we know about him. Toto doesn’t get to be a hero in this book, and Toto is a dog meant for heroics. He begins this adventure by being disobedient to a startlingly insensitive Dorothy and all the resulting struggles he brings on himself. However, though he does a naughty thing, he gets to go to a party in the end, so the theme is a bit hard to pin down.

      The illustrations are colorful and bright, if a bit shallow. The cartoon style gives the book a lively quality. Toto is definitely a small dog in motion (though his breed doesn’t seem to be consistent, sometimes he looks like a Scotty, sometimes a Cairn, and sometimes a mixed breed.) But the lack of theme in the story seems to leak into not giving the illustrator a place to focus upon and something deeper to show us. All in all, this is a book that will delight kids for the first read, but you won’t be seeing it nightly.