No one, since original author L. Frank Baum, has taken the stories of wonderful land known as "Oz" and transformed them into an equally enchanting visit the way that author Gregory Maguire has with his "The Wicked Years" series.

The first book, "Wicked," was adapted into a long-running, Tony-winning Broadway musical and the next two books, "Son Of A Witch," and "A Lion Among Men," both bestsellers, advanced the story of the magical land of witches, wizards and Munchkins.

But like with all good things, there comes a time for an ending.

"Out of Oz" is the final book in the series, and in it we meet little Rain, born as green as her grandmother Elphaba aka "The Wicked Witch of the West." For her own protection, she's been growing up in ignorance of her parentage and with her skin under a disguise spell, serving as a member of Glinda's household staff. Calling her an odd child is an understatement, and one has to be really different in Oz to qualify as "odd."

Liir, Elphaba's son and Rain's father, and Brrr, the Cowardly Lion, play key roles in this book, and Dorothy returns - this time deposited in Oz by the San Francisco earthquake and finally facing trial in Munchkinland for the murder of the Wicked Witch of the East.

Most of the story revolves around an impending war between Oz and Munchkinland, and the ancient magical spell book, the Grimmerie, which is passed about like a hot potato to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. There is a lot of action in this novel, and frankly, if you haven't read the first three books in Maguire's "Oz" series, you'll be pretty lost. (But it gives you a wonderful excuse to go out and get the first three books!) Maguire weaves his plot lines in and out with each other, but, finally converges them all to tie up the entire series with a nice green bow.