Making the Woozy and the Sawhorse

These are two of Calvin's favorite characters from the original Oz series by L. Frank Baum and ever since I'd ordered the hand painted wood dolls from Fancie Fannies I'd been trying to think of a way to make these two critters come to life as well. These ideas came to me at the last minute, mostly because at that point I was forced to actually do something or give in. I made the Woozy last night (the night before the party) and the Sawhorse this morning while Calvin and his dad were out shopping for the party food. I am very pleased wtih them, and Calvin absolutely loved them.

The Woozy

He's a blue blocky character. Actually, he's described as being made entirely of squared off shapes, right down to his tail, on which he has exactly three hairs. I bought blue foam letters on clearance at Joann's and cut them to size using a kitchen knife. I joined the pieces together with toothpicks, adding a dab of hot glue to hold them. I painted on the eyes, nose, ears, and pink inside the mouth, and used a needle and thread to add his three tail hairs. When finished I gave the whole creature a good coating of Modge Podge. Voila—Woozy!

The Sawhorse

I raided the kindling pile for a few appropriately sized sticks. I used small saw to cut the body size. The first cuts for the mouth I also made with the saw, but I finished the mouth by whittling with a craft knife. The tail and legs I selected and cut to size and whittled their tips down to points. I used a drill to make holes in the body and inserted the limbs, using a dab of wood glue in each. I painted his eyes on and then coated him in a large helping of Modge Podge as well. The bridle was made with floss and the ears with felt.

Voila—Sawhorse! Shown here with Jack Pumpkinhead, painted by Fancie Fannies.

Mapping Oz

This needs no other explanation, really. If you've only ever seen the movie it might not fully make sense. You'll probably recognize the yellow brick road leading from Munchkinland to the Emerald City. The rest of this picture maps the land of Oz as described throughout the books of the series as written by L. Frank Baum. I found it, just like this, on the table in our office, drawn when I wasn't looking. That's my favorite kind of art.

What I love even more about this is that I can see he understands the idea at least of how to draw north, south, east, and west, since that's how the countries are described in the books. It's fun to see learning happen in context—a make-believe context, maybe, but an authentic one to the learner.

Weekly book shelf, 5/28

A quote to share, from a letter to readers in L. Frank Baum's Magical Monarch of Mo:

"It is the nature of children to scorn realities, which crowd into their lives all too quickly with advancing years. Childhood is the time for fables, for dreams, for joy."

The last thing I believe is that children scorn realities, or that realities cannot be a part of childhood joys, but I do value worlds of magic and wild imagination as well, and what better place to find those than in a good book.

Anyhow, here's what we've been reading this week.

Here's some of what Calvin was reading by himself this week. We read The Wizard of Oz together last fall (reviewed here) and have been making our way through the series ever since. Now we're waiting for the next book to come in at the library, the first in the series as written by Ruth Plumly Thomson, and in the meantime Calvin decided to re-read the Wizard of Oz all by himself. This is by far the longest, most advanced book he's read by himself as yet, but he's having no trouble whatsoever.

  

Some picture books we read together. Bamboo Valley has long been favored around here. There's nothing particularly stunning about it, but it's a mixture of endearing and realistic. Like Bird, Butterfly, Eel it's the real story of this majestic animal, mostly devoid of anthropomorphism. Then I'm not a huge fan of Jan Brett, but Town Mouse Country Mouse is one that I do just fine with. Lastly, The Great Kapok Tree is a parade of beautiful rainforest animals arguing for the life of their forest. This one I love not only for its message, but also for the beautiful illustrations.

While we wait for the next Oz book to come in at our library we've been reading the short stories of The Magical Monarch of Mo, also by L. Frank Baum, written before the Oz series. I'm still in love with Baum. And Jon has been reading The Arabian Nights with Calvin, too.

 

On my bookshelf this week... for fiction I've started Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, in which I'm still on Swann's Way. In non-fiction I finished In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson, and am starting on Night, by Ellie Wiesel.

Glinda of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (our reviews)

This was the last Oz book written by Baum. He died shortly after writing it, and I wonder if perhaps some of it was even finished by another writer, because in places it sure felt like he was filling space by repeating facts and introductions well known to all Oz fans, and never before revisited. But that really didn't take away from the book much, it just made for some pages I would have skimmed quickly if I hadn't been reading it out loud. Otherwise, I'm still very in love with this series, and worried about how that might change when we read our first non-Baum written book next.

The Magic of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

The penultimate book in the series as written by Baum. If there weren't another twenty-some more books widely considered as part of the Oz canon I think I would be very sad. As it is, I think I still am. I think it's possible to make these books feel fresh and new, even twelve books into the series, because anything, and I mean anything, can happen in Oz, so there are no contraints, natural or artificial, binding the author's creativity. Of course the plot line doesn't change all that much from book to book—there's only a handful of those to choose from here—but the intriguing and unique characters that fill in the bare bones of the plots are what make the books enjoyable one right after the other. The Magic of Oz is another winner for me, full of just enough adult-size humor to give depth to the child's fairy story. This is children's fantasy at its best.