The Hedgehog of Oz

December 15, 2020
A bespectacled hedgehog named Marcel finds himself on a familiar journey home. Marcel lives in the rickety, unused balcony of an old movie house, the Emerald City Theater, along with his two chicken friends who escaped from a poultry truck. They live on scavenged candy and popcorn from the concession stand. Marcel's favorite showing is the weekly matinee of The Wizard of Oz, as he already has most of it memorized from viewings at his former home with a girl named Dorothy who wore red high-tops. After the theater closes for business, the three friends are captured by humans. Marcel is shut up in a box and taken on a truck ride to the countryside, where he is abandoned. He tumbles into Mousekinland, a colony of mice who help him on his way. As he follows the smell of buttered popcorn back to town, Marcel can't help but notice how his journey bears a striking resemblance to the plot of a certain movie. Woodland critters fill in for the movie characters, and while readers who are familiar with the classic 1939 film will get the most out of the story, the book's emotional core stands independent of this frequently referenced material. Leonardo incorporates poignantly grand feelings, such as loss and abandonment, into these small animal characters. The humans seem to be White by default apart from the brown-skinned theater owner. Old-world charm and adventure. (Fiction. 8-12)

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