"This iron hand...I use for ironing, lifting hot pots from the stove and all horrid sort of work; this leather hand I keep for beating rugs, dusting, sweeping and so on; this wooden hand I use for churning and digging in the garden; these two red rubber hands for dishwashing and scrubbing, and my two fine white hands I keep for holding and braiding my hair."
Mandy is a goat-herder from Mt. Mern, an area in the far east of Nonestica where everyone has seven arms. She appears in Ruth Plumly Thompson 's book Handy Mandy in Oz.
History[]
After a geyser erupts beneath her feet and sends the ground she was standing on soaring over the Deadly Desert, Mandy lands in the feudal kingdom of Keretaria in Munchkin Country and aids Nox the Ox (who gives her the nickname "Handy Mandy") in restoring their lost king to his throne, who has been kidnapped by the evil Wizard of Wutz along with most of the powerful artifacts of Oz. She helps defeat them with the help of Himself the Elf, who lives in the Silver Hammer. After her adventures are complete, she returns to Mt. Mern for one month to gather her goats and say her farewells, and then, using one of the Wizard of Oz's fast wishing pills, teleports herself and her goats back to Keretaria where she helps King Kerry and Nox the Ox rule the tiny kingdom.
She does not appear in any other of the Famous Forty Oz books, but has made sporadic appearances in modern Oz books, due to the premature expiration of her copyright in 1966. She is the protagonist of Nathan DeHoff’s The Goat Girls of Oz, in which a witch named Wunchie spirits Nox away and the only way for Mandy to rescue him is to track down the Jewels of Munchkenny. She appears also in The Haunted Castle of Oz by Marcus Mebes, as part of a small army Ozma assembles to take down an evil king in the kingdom of Flora, where her ability to wield weapons with all seven hands proves useful.
Personality[]
Mandy is an "honest and industrious" goat-girl. Contrary to many fictional characters with unusual appearances or bodies, Mandy is completely comfortable with her seven arms and uses them to her full advantage, and is even able to wield weapons with them. She finds it strange to be in a land where people have only two arms. Her seven arms are not treated as a disability she must overcome, but as an advantage. Mandy is confident and rarely gives in to despair. She has a few vocal tics; when surprised she will often extend her words, such as saying "My---y!", and she often also says "Mmmm-mm!"
According to the dust jacket on the Reilly & Lee publication of Handy Mandy in Oz, she is fourteen years old.
Notes[]
An earlier, unrelated seven-armed character named Handy Mandy was created by Ruth Plumly Thompson for her Supposyville stories. This version of Handy Mandy was robotic. Thompson seems to have recycled the character here, giving her a new personality and altered appearance.
She is not to be confused with the title character of the 2006 Disney Jr. series, Handy Manny.
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