The (Wonderful) Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (our reviews)

I loved discovering this story all over again, the right way. While this movie is a classic that will long endure, like most books made into movies it just doesn't do justice to the original, and for all these years I'd had no idea. I'd heard all kinds of references to Baum's fantastical writing and some hints at political symbolism and dark mystery, but having now put all skepticism aside and read the book, I find it to be neither dark nor so rife with political commentary that it can't be enjoyed for the fantasy that it is. My only regret is that I hadn't read it earlier, as in almost 30 years earlier and long before watching the movie.

Obviously I recommend this book. Sure it won't be for everbody—it's much longer than the other youth books we've read and the sentence structure is very different, having been written at the turn of the century (the 20th) and possibly for an older audience. That being said it was not over my four year old's head and he greatly enjoyed it. So greatly, in fact, that we have since looked up information about the rest of the books in the Oz series and moved on to the next one, The Marvelous Land of Oz.

But first, the rest of our review. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (or just The Wizard of Oz as it was titled after the stage and screen successes) was a big hit with Calvin. Here is his final journal entry about the book, and the rest of his illustrations.

I think this entry is fairly easy to read so no deciphering is necessary.

And I think his descriptions are also fairly readable here, but I will add that the lion is being rescued by field mice and the scarecrow and woodman who are pulling him out of the poppy field on a wagon, and the great castle in the Emerald City has a huge downspout. That's just good architecture.

Oz in this picture is just a giant head because that is how he first appears to Dorothy in the throne room. And who doesn't love flying monkeys?

The Humbug of Oz? That's what they call him when they find out he isn't really a Wizard but has been fooling his subjects all these years. And notice the green glasses on all our characters—they all wear green glasses in the Emerald City.

Hammerheads, like the Kalidahs, will be unknown characters to those who have never read the book, and you'll notice that the shoes taking Dorothy home are silver, not red like they are in the movie (I guess silver just wasn't exciting enough for an early technicolor movie).

The end all of this is that we highly recommend this book to people who enjoy a good fantasy and love using their imagination.