The Enchanted Bridge: 03/30/23

The Enchanted Bridge by Zetta Elliott and Cherise Harris (Illustrations) (2023) is the fourth book in the Dragons in a Bag series. Having failed at being a witch's apprentice, Jaxon and his magically altered friends are headed back to Palmara to save all magic creatures.

While Jax and the phoenix go on a quest to save his grandfather from the hidden tower, the others much work out a truce to save Palmara. With the action divided across locations, we're given multiple points of view, including from the dragons, something I don't recall the other books doing.

As this series progresses, Palmara reminds me more and more of Oz. With it's ties to the cities of New York and Chicago, it's more the Oz of The Wiz than the original Baum books, but there's still the other world's appreciation of a child's practicality that rings true to Baum's Oz. Both worlds are blocked by supposedly impassible barriers where the main characters find way after way of crossing. And like in The Emerald City of Oz (1910), the connection between the worlds must be broken to protect the magical world.

Like the previous three books, The Enchanted Bridge sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. With the inclusion of the points of view of the magical creatures, the book has a scarecrow / minotaur (99) dual traveler set up. The destination is home (66) both in terms of a safer Palmara and Jax's literal home in New York. The routes there are the interstate/railroad (00), or the basically straight path to the hidden tower in Palmara as well as via the UR once back in the States.

Five stars

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