JAMES C. WALLACE II, WIZARD OF OZ MAGICIAN AND AUTHOR

James C. Wallace II, originally a native of West Virginia, currently lives in Terre Haute, Indiana with his wife Amanda. They have been married more than 26 years, with a herd of 5 children and 12 grandchildren. His background covers over 26 years in children's education, including experience working for the world's largest children's museum; The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, where he was the Planetarium Educator for SpaceQuest Planetarium. In addition to children's books about Oz, he is recognized by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a leading developer of web-based educational games, educational exhibit design, curriculum development and implementation. In addition, he is involved in the DiscoverHover program, which is an educational program developing and utilizing hovercraft in a unique and fun way. He now serves as the Royal Liaison to Princess Ozma, Sovereign Ruler of Oz and endeavors to fulfill her royal command to tell the tale of her newest Royal Magician to the children of the Great Outside


Magician of Oz (Volume 1)(Paperback)
by James C. Wallace II

Wallace wrote this book which can be found on Amazon and other book stores and is a must read.

REVIEW OF HIS BOOK AND RATED FIVE STARS..This is the story of Jamie Diggs, a young boy whose family moves from Kansas to Indiana to pursue a dream and soon finds more than he thought possible. The story takes place in modern-day times, about 100 hundred years after the original Wizard of Oz books by L.Frank Baum. The story's main hero is Jamie Diggs, a 10 year old boy who discovers his magical past inside an old humpback trunk. He learns magic from a local magic club and eventually discovers a way into the magical land of Oz. Once, there, he meets Dorothy, Glinda and Princess Ozma, the Ruler of Oz. He discovers that his great grandfather was the original Wizard of Oz. Soon, Jamie Diggs must battle an army of trees and morel mushrooms who are planning an attack on the Castle of the Tin Woodman. It seems the Tin Woodman defeated the trees a hundred years ago in one of the original Oz books, and now they want revenge. The mushrooms were enchanted by the trees as their ally, so they too must be defeated. The young boy enlists Dorothy to help him conquer the tree army and mushrooms. She gets to cast her first spell in this story and Jamie defeats the tree army in a most unusual way, using a covered bridge to do so. Her spell is against the mushrooms and has a very odd result. He then returns to Indiana to await his next journey to Oz. This was a very nice story based on the original story of Oz. It took a while, over 8 chapters, for the young boy tofinally reach Oz.. However, there are a lot of very charming character developments in those 8 chapters, including a fascination with potato soup, a new friend named Buddy and the Hoosier countryside, including cemeteries and Sycamore trees. One character is named Tree-in-the-Road, and it turns out to be a real tree located inrural Indiana. There is also using of a coveredbridge in the story and that too is based on the Bridgeton CoveredBridge festival inrural Indiana. This story relies a lot on local Indiana stuff, which is very nice. Another pleasant feature in this story is the development of friendship, love and loyalty within the story. One particular chapter is called Ozma's Gift, and it is all about friendship, love and loyalty. The author states that this is the first of three volumes about the young boy and his adventures in Oz. As such, much of the character development should come up again in later volumes. It seems to be written more for kids than adults, although I suspect adults who love Oz will enjoy this book. Most of the characters in it are already familiar to anyone who has seen the movie, The Wizard of Oz. Overall, this story seems to be a good mid-western tale of Oz. I look forward to the next story, which I understand will be called Shadow Demon of Oz.


REVIEW OF SHADOW DEMON OF OZ, RATED FIVE STARS BY READERS


Shadow Demon of Oz (Royal Magician of Oz) (Kindle Edition)
Jamie's back for another adventure in Oz and this time he's bringing his friend, Buddy. Evil has returned to Oz and will test Jamie's creativity and perseverance even more than last time. Author James C. Wallace II captures the spirit of Oz perfectly in this tale and I loved this book even more than the first. We finally get the chance to know the characters in greater detail as they deepen their bonds of friendship and reveal new details of their past.

I found I couldn't put the book down for the last 1/3, when it got most intense. The ending was very satisfying and everything tied together perfectly, but left me wanting another sequel! It's a perfect book to read to younger children (I read part of it aloud to a 3 year old and 5 year old I nanny and they were both captivated), but appeals to the more mature crowd as well, who want to re-visit their own childhood and make one more trip to Oz.

If you liked the first book, you'll love the second



Family of Oz is due out in February of 2011 (less than 6 months from now) and will have a cover done by the same artist that did Magician of Oz (2nd edition) and Shadow Demon of Oz; His name is Dennis Anfuso.