title: Out of Oz: The Final Volume in the Wicked Years
author:  Gregory Maguire 
description: <br /> <strong class="h1"> &ldquo;Elphaba&rsquo;s Heirs and Assigns&rdquo; by Gregory Maguire </strong> <br /> <img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/harper/images/Maguire_Web._V151596131_.jpg" style="float: right;" width="135" />
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  ![Cover: The Hedgehog of Oz, by Cory Leonardo](../images/9781534467613.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![The Hedgehog of Oz by Cory Leonardo, Aladdin](../images/title.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f00iv-01.jpg)
  
  
  For Caleb, Sam, and Amelia
  
  
  May you always find your way back…
  
  
  Back to the road that leads you home.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Overture
  
  
  TUCKED BETWEEN A BRICK APARTMENT building and a busy corner deli, on a
  storybook tree-lined street, sits a theater. A run-down but beautiful theater.
  
  
  At precisely six o’clock every morning, a long ladder pushes through the shiny
  front entrance, and with a wrench and a terrible screech, the ladder unfolds.
  Under the cheerful glow of the marquee, an elderly man ascends.
  
  
  One by one letters are plucked from beneath the NOW SHOWING sign and scooted
  around. _Attack of the Atomic Alien-Cats_ becomes _Night of a Thousand Kisses_
  in the bat of an eyelash. Though the marquee might read _Marigold Takes
  Manhattan!_ at 6 a.m., by 6:05, _Bleak Battle III_ w