The Road to Oz, by L. Frank Baum (a review by Calvin)

We have read other books since we started this series. Really. In fact we read a multitude of other picture books and have also perused The Hobbit in graphic novel form, but we keep migrating back to Baum. You've heard me rave about these before. Here is Calvin's review of The Road to Oz, by L. Frank Baum.

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, by L. Frank Baum (a review by Calvin)

Yes we are clearly making our way through the entire catalogue of Oz books. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is the fourth book in the sequence and so far each subsequent book is at least as good as the last.  I've sung praises for the series often enough already that I think no more need be said, so I'll just move right into Calvin's review.

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

We're working our way through the Oz books, and loving every chapter along the way. The books aren't perfect—there are some dark moments and sometimes a taste of violence—but in general they're a fun foray into a fantasty world that at one time captured the minds and hearts of many children. Reading these books glimpses not only that fantasy world, which is fun for Calvin, but also the world that was the early 1900s, and that's fun for me. I can't help but assess the gulf of cultural difference between then and now as we're reading. I am finding myself very fond of these books, and I believe Calvin agrees. His review of Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum:

The Marvelous Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (our reviews)

Baum actually wrote and published this story four years after the first Oz book, and apparently it was not part of his original plan but was in answer to the numerous letters he received asking for more stories about the first book's quirky characters. As with so many sequels this Oz book didn't have quite the power of the first one, but according to Calvin's reaction that slight disappointment belongs to me alone. Maybe I'll just blame it on having grown up with the movie and the closer connection I'd feel to the first story. And before you think that this is a bad review let me make amends by saying that this is really a great, fun fantasy book in the same vein as the Wonderful Wizard, and in The Marvelous Land of Oz the reader gets to meet several new characters and is even treated to a mystery with a somewhat comedic, if likely suspected, twist at the end.

Here is Calvin's review, composed and written entirely by himself, though with the obligatory spelling assistance.

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.