Ruth Plumly Thompson’s The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa begins when Santa Claus decides to travel the world in order to find better presents. As he explains to his chimney sweep Jimmy, “I’m not satisfied. You see… I’ve made every kind of toy, game and candy… This year I’ve decided to go on a voyage of discovery” (pg. 15). Along the way, he visits King Neptune under the sea, the Island of Bombazooky, and the Lost Islands of Rockaway Island, containing living rocking-horse-type animals, and Doll Island, with living dolls, on the other side of the sunset. The overall format of the story thus follows that of Thompson’s Oz books, with characters going on a vague journey and encountering strange wonders along the way.

According to Douglas G. Greene in his introduction, while other authors have made their mark on the Santa Claus legend, particularly L. Frank Baum in The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, “it may have been Ruth Plumly Thompson… who made Santa Claus most truly her own; taking only the bare outlines of the St. Nicholas legend, she sent him on a marvelous voyage which could happen only in the world of Ruth Plumly Thompson” (pg. 7). While this story belongs with Thompson’s five non-Oz books, it does cross over with that marvelous land, as Santa’s Barrel Bird later appeared in Lucky Bucky in Oz and Captain Salt in Oz echoes some of the adventures of this book. In a further connection, John R. Neill, illustrator of over 40 Oz books and author/illustrator of three of his own (including the aforementioned Lucky Bucky in Oz), illustrated this work for Thompson.

Like P.L. Travers’ 1934 Mary Poppins novel, Thompson unfortunately draws upon ethnic stereotypes in her portrayal of Santa’s journey. On the Island of Bombazooky, Santa and his crew encounter a group of cannibals, whom Thompson depicts using the iconography of blackface minstrelsy while referring to them continually as “savages” (chapter 7). Though the chapter contains much of the wordplay and punning that one expects of Thompson’s work, it is unfortunate that she never updated this book after its 1926 publication and prior to her 1976 death in order to remove these elements (like Travers updated Mary Poppins in 1967 and 1981).

Due to Chapter 7, the book is sadly not advised for young children. The International Wizard of Oz Club arranged this 1985 reprint for fans of the Oz books and, in that spirit, The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa will make a worthy contribution to the collections of older Oz fans and scholars. It includes black-and-white reproductions of Neill’s original two-color illustrations. ( )