Synopsis:

  This story is something like the fairy tales of old, wherein the prince must accept challenges, conquer, and perform feats of daring before he can become king or win the beautiful princess.

  One who finds himself in just such a situation is young Prince Randywell Handywell Brandenburg Bumpadoo, the Prince of the Purple Mountains. Better known simply as Prince Randy, he is a prince in the tiny Kingdom of Regalia (which is perched atop the Purple Mountains of the Gillikin Country).

  While visiting the neighboring kingdom of Pumperdink, Prince Randy criticizes the king's favorite grapes (after eating them all) and claims they are sour. For this, he is sentenced to 'dipping', but luckily he wins the friendship of Kabumpo the elegant elephant (first introduced in Kabumpo in Oz), who makes Prince Randy his attendant.

  Later at dinner, a wandering magician entertains the Royal Family of Pumperdink. However, after picking magic fire roses they disappear! It is then left to Prince Randy and Kabumpo to save the day.

  They are soon misdirected across the Deadly Desert by Soothsayer, the only fortune teller in the Gillikin Country. There, in the Land of Ev, Randy and Kabumpo find the castle of Jinnicky the Red Jinn. This thoroughly likable character lives in a jar stuffed full of magic which he only uses to help those whose cause is just. If just so happens that Prince Randy is one of those people. After enough encounters to fill ten Oz books, he proves himself every inch a king.

  Among the interesting personages you will meet in this exciting tale, are: Alibabble, Grand Vizier to Jinnicky the Red Jinn; Addie the adding adder, royal serpent to Jinnicky; King Kumup and Queen Godown of Stairway Town; Nandywog the 'little' giant; Kojo the three-legged Tripedalian; Ozwog the wozard (not quite a 'wizard'); Too Too the Second (King and Double King of the City of Double Up in the yellow Winkie Country); and Queen Torpedora of Torpedo Town (where everything is very hot, fiery, and explosive).

  Note: Just as L. Frank Baum wrote a direct sequel to one of his specific tales (The Patchwork Girl of Oz is the sequel to The Marvelous Land of Oz), so does Ms. Thompson with this tale, being a direct sequel to the popular Kabumpo in Oz.