Trot & Cap'n Bill Books in Order

The Trot & Cap’n Bill books sit right next to Oz on Baum’s shelf of “fairyland” adventures. They’re not set in the Emerald City at first, but they share the same playful logic: impossible places with strict rules, odd creatures who speak plainly, and kids who keep moving forward because stopping would be worse. Compared with the main Oz run, these stories feel a little more like travelogues—two companions drifting from wonder to wonder, learning the rules as they go.

The leads are Trot, a curious girl who lives near the sea, and Cap’n Bill, an old sailor with a wooden leg and a lot of opinions. Their friendship is the emotional anchor of the series. Cap’n Bill can grumble, but he shows up; Trot can be impulsive, but she’s brave in a practical, everyday way. They don’t need to “learn a lesson” so much as figure out what kind of world they’ve landed in and how to get through it without losing each other.

In The Sea Fairies, the ocean becomes a doorway. Trot and Cap’n Bill are pulled into an underwater world of merfolk and sea creatures, guided by a magical helper who treats the deep like a neighborhood. The wonders are beautiful, but not always safe. The book reads like a tour that keeps slipping into danger: someone needs help, a rule gets broken, and the pair have to rely on common sense in a place where common sense doesn’t always apply.

Sky Island takes the same duo (and adds the young traveler Button-Bright) upward instead of down. The trio ends up in a strange land divided into contrasting societies, and the humor comes from watching them navigate customs that are taken very seriously by the people who live there. As in Oz, the conflicts are often solved by finding the one detail everyone else has accepted without question.

It’s whimsical, but it never forgets the stakes for the kids inside it.

These books also show how Baum liked to build a shared universe without making it feel like homework. Trot and Cap’n Bill can carry their own plots, and then—when you move into Oz—they can step onto that larger stage without losing their personality. That crossover happens most directly in The Scarecrow of Oz, where their path intersects with familiar Oz figures and the wider politics of fairyland.

If you like the Oz books for their sense of exploration—new lands, new rules, new friends—this mini-run gives you more of that same feeling with a seaside-and-sky twist. Start with The Sea Fairies, follow with Sky Island, and treat the rest as optional connections back to Oz when you’re ready.