Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz
Audiobook3 hours

The Wizard of Oz

Written by L. Frank Baum

Narrated by Rebecca Burns

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

Most of us remember The Wizard of Oz as the film starring Judy Garland and Bert Lahr. But the film was based on L. Frank Baum's immensely popular Oz series, which was published in the early twentieth century. In these novels, Oz is the utopian land beyond the rainbow where threats are turned back with valor and ingenuity. The books' success lies in the way they induce children to look for the element of wonder in the world around them.

Considered the first truly American fairy tale, The Wizard of Oz follows the adventures of Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto, after her Kansas home is swept away by a cyclone and lands in Oz, killing the Wicked Witch of the East. The Munchkins and the good witch, Glenda, show them the yellow brick road, which leads to Emerald City and the powerful Wizard of Oz. On this unforgettable journey, Dorothy encounters the brainless Scarecrow, the heartless Tin Woodman, and the cowardly Lion, each of whom must overcome the wrath of the Wicked Witch of the West to get his heart's desire.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 29, 2008
ISBN9781400178902
Author

L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900 and received enormous, immediate success. Baum went on to write seventeen additional novels in the Oz series. Today, he is considered the father of the American fairy tale. His stories inspired the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz, one of the most widely viewed movies of all time. MinaLima is an award-winning graphic design studio founded by Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima, renowned for establishing the visual graphic style of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film series. Specializing in graphic design and illustration, Miraphora and Eduardo have continued their involvement in the Harry Potter franchise through numerous design commissions, from creating all the graphic elements for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando Resort, to designing award-winning publications for the brand. Their best-selling books include Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone, Harry Potter Film Wizardry, The Case of Beasts: Explore the Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Archive of Magic: Explore the Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts screenplays. MinaLima studio is renowned internationally for telling stories through design and has created its own MinaLima Classics series, reimagining a growing collection of much-loved tales including Peter Pan, The Secret Garden, and Pinocchio.

More audiobooks from L. Frank Baum

Related to The Wizard of Oz

Titles in the series (5)

View More

Related audiobooks

Children's Classics For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for The Wizard of Oz

Rating: 3.889602183620026 out of 5 stars
4/5

3,895 ratings217 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Wizard of Oz, popular abbreviation for the originally titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum originally published in 1900. The story follows the adventures of a girl named Dorothy in the Land of Oz. Thanks in part to the 1939 movie based on the book, it has become entrenched in American popular culture and led to Baum writing thirteen more Oz books.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved reading this as a kid! Even now I like to read it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)I think it's fairly safe by now to assume that nearly everyone in Western society is familiar with The Wizard of Oz, most of us because of the classic 1939 movie adaptation; and many realize as well that author L. Frank Baum ended up penning a whole series of sequels, because of the original book's astounding success back at the turn of the 20th century when it was first published -- 13 sequels altogether, before his death in 1919, which after the movie's success twenty years later became a literal merchandising empire, spawning hundreds more official sequels by various authors and hundreds more unofficial ones once the characters moved into the public domain. And like many others, I've always been interested in what these 14 "canonical" Oz books have to say; and that's why I decided this winter to sit down and read them all in a row for the first time, easy to do because of them being available for free at both Project Gutenberg and the email subscription service DailyLit (which is how I myself read them, and in fact is how I read many of the older books you see reviewed here; I'm a big fan of theirs, and highly recommend them).But of course, to even approach these books with the right mindset, it's important to understand that like so many other one-hit-wonders, Baum was not only eluded by success in most of his other endeavors but was an active failure at them -- in the 1870s, for example, he unsuccessfully tried his hand at breeding fancy poultry (a national fad at the time), then in the 1880s opened his own theatre and became one of the first-ever Americans to produce modern-style stage musicals, apparently a little too ahead of its time, then in the 1890s moved to the Dakota Territory and opened a dry-goods store that eventually failed, as well as starting a newspaper that folded too. So it was sort of a case of random lightning in a bottle when he decided in the late 1890s to try his hand at children's literature, and ended up with his very first title being the most popular kid's book in America for two years straight, and no surprise that Baum then spent the rest of his life desperately trying to figure out how to bottle that lightning again. Because now that I've read it myself, I can confirm that the original Wonderful Wizard of Oz is astonishingly great, a sort of miraculous combination of traits that makes for an almost perfect children's story; and although most of it follows the same storyline seen in the '39 movie, there are also significant differences, making it worth your while to sit and read the book version if you have the interest. (And by the way, for some really interesting reading, check out the academic analysis that was done of this book in the 1960s, arguing that most of its details symbolically correspond almost exactly to various political and economic issues of the late 1800s, including the yellow brick road representing the much-discussed gold standard of that age, the scarecrow representing the then-hot Populist Party, Toto representing the teetotaler [prohibitionist] movement, and a lot more.)But of course, there are a couple of details about this book that have been forgotten over the decades too, which also help explain its record-shattering success -- it was an unusually lavish book for its time, for example, with two-toned illustrations on every page and several full-color plates, and let's also not forget that Baum himself mounted a Broadway-style musical of Oz just two years after the book was published, a huge hit which toured nationally for a decade and that was even more insanely popular than the book itself (including making national stars out of vaudeville performers Fred Stone and David Montgomery, playing the Scarecrow and Tin Man; the stage production left out the Cowardly Lion altogether, which is why he is also barely seen in any of the 13 canonical sequels). And so that's why when Baum attempted starting up other fantasy series in the wake of Oz's success, hoping to turn all of them into lucrative franchises like the original, the audience mostly responded with yawns; and that's why Baum eventually went back to writing more and more Oz books as the 20th century continued, because by now the strength of the brand far outweighed the relative writing skills of Baum when it came to any particular volume.That's why, at least to adults, it's perhaps actually the introductions to each book that are the most fascinating thing about them; because to be frank, most of the books follow a pretty familiar formula, with a danger-filled quest involving various kooky characters that is usually finished about two-thirds of the way through, followed by a massive parade or party that lets Baum trot out the growing number of main characters added to this universe with each title. (And by the way, prepare yourself for Baum's unending love of the deus-ex-machina plot device; over half the books end along the lines of, "And then our heroes took possession of a super-duper magical device, which they waved in the air and all their troubles went away.") In fact, for those who don't know, that's why the official map of Oz and its surrounding lands eventually grew so large, because Baum still hadn't given up on his dream of having a whole series of kid-lit cash cows out there generating revenue for him, and so would use many of these Oz sequels to introduce entirely new casts of characters who live in entirely new lands, "just over the mountains" or "just past the desert" of Oz itself. By the end of the original 14 books, in fact, Baum had built up a virtual aristocracy of licensable characters, all of whom would have to be dragged out for a cameo at some point in each book to remind the audience of their existence -- not just the cast of the original book and '39 movie but also various other princesses like Ozma and Betsy Bobbin, boy characters like Ojo the Unlucky and Button Bright, adults who help them like the Shaggy Man, Cap'n Bill and Ugu the Shoemaker, and of course a whole litany of quirky fantastical sidekicks, including but not limited to Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Great Jinjin, Billina the Angry Hen, Scraps the Patchwork Girl, and Polychrome the Rainbow Fairy. Whew! And so did the Great Oz Merchandising Experiment keep limping along for two decades, with each sequel selling less and less and getting lazier and lazier (for example, the tenth book in the series, 1916's Rinkitink in Oz, was actually a non-Oz book written a decade previous, published almost unchanged except for a hasty final chapter full of Oz regulars slapped onto the end); and thus did Baum's bad luck in business come back with a vengeance as well, with three more Broadway productions that were all flops, and even the establishment of a film production company in 1914 that eventually went bankrupt.You can see the progression of all this reflected in Baum's first-person introductions to each book, which like I said is why they might be the most fascinating parts of all for adult readers -- how in the first sequel, for example, he expresses legitimately gleeful surprise and joy at how passionate his fans were, and how thousands of children had literally written to him out of the blue demanding more Oz stories, while with each subsequent sequel his tone becomes more and more snarky, ala "Well, dear and wonderful children, you've yet again demanded another Oz book like the sheep you are, so here it is, you screeching little monsters." In fact, in book six of the series, 1910's The Emerald City of Oz, Baum flat-out states that it's going to be the very last Oz book, and it's no coincidence that many fans actually consider this one to be the best of the original fourteen, because of Baum's extra attention to and enthusiasm for this particular storyline, thinking as he erroneously did that it would be the grand finale of the entire Oz universe; but after his later financial failures forced him back into the Oz business again, the gloves finally come off in his introductions, with most of the rest sounding to today's ears something like, "Well, okay, here again is the sugary teat you all apparently can't get enough of suckling, you infuriating little animals, so open wide and take your medicine." Now, of course, you shouldn't feel too bad for Baum; by the last years of his life, his combined books and plays were generating for him in today's terms roughly a quarter-million dollars a year just in personal royalties.So all in all, an experience I'm glad I had, reading all fourteen original Oz books in a row, but not something I'd recommend to others; instead, maybe better just to read the first, then skip to the sixth, then skip straight to the 14th, 1920's Glinda of Oz, because of its unusual darkness (probably caused, many scholars agree, by Baum knowing that he was near death). As with many authors I've looked at here at CCLaP, history seems to have correctly adjusted itself in Baum's case, with most of his books now rightfully falling into the obscurity they deserve, even while his one true masterpiece is still rightfully recognized as such.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of my favourites! I just recently finished reading this (again), but this time to my 6yob. If you've only seen the movie, be warned, the book is very different. The whole wicked witch story comprises only one chapter of this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, especially in those subtle pieces that the movie didn't/couldn't hold:

    "...for when he [The Scarecrow] found himself alone in his room he stood stupidly in one spot, just within the doorway, to wait till morning. It would not rest him to lie down, and he could not close his eyes; so he remained all night staring at a little spider which was weaving its web in a corner of the room, just as if it were not one of the most wonderful rooms in the world."

    Didn't expect that I would be sucked into reading the series, but I've already downloaded the second book.

    I love the somewhat haphazard feeling of the book; the fact that the wicked witch is not such a central character as in the movie; and the clever prose.

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The first time I read this book, I was 25 years old, and picked up the annotated Centennial Edition from the library. I really enjoyed it, but it must have been just too much information to retain because when I listened to it with my kids this week, there was a shocking number of details that I didn't recall at all.

    The thing that stood out the most to me when I read it the first time was the Scarecrow's wise and witty sayings, one of which we had posted up on our refrigerator for years (I can't remember the exact quote; something about how most people who have brains don't use them).

    I didn't pick out much of anything of note from the Scarecrow this time around, but I did notice 46 beheadings (although two of those weren't fatal) and one neck-wringing.

    L. Frank Baum's introduction to the novel talked about how it was intended to be just a fun story for children without all of the scary moralizing of older fairy tales. From this I suppose I can conclude that Baum thought beheadings were really awesome things that kids would love.

    And actually, he might have been right. My kids adored this story. I could tell by how much my four-year-old repeated back to me (and how quietly he sat listening without making annoying sounds or punching his sister) that he was really engrossed in the story. My nearly-nine-year-old daughter loved the story despite feeling annoyed at the treatment of the majority of the predatory animals in the story.

    So, that makes me wonder...why did we like it? I think it was just because the story was so magical. Plus, I think the idea of being carried to a foreign land in a flying house, being praised for something you didn't intend to do (and then expected to repeat the feat), and then spending the rest of the story trying to get back home again must really appeal to kids. Or at least to my kids. It gives me hope that even if I'm as drab and undemonstrative as Em and Henry, my kids will still want to come home.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A treasure of American Literature.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Think I read bits of this as a kid, but not the whole thing. Nice. The audio voices are rather odd, but bearable. Won't be re-reading it again all that soon, and not sure I liked it enough to justify reading the rest of the series. Hmmm.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lots of fun! I the book has some differences to the show. Baum is a clever writer
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is the kind of book you could simply start reading again right after you've finished.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I found it difficult to read this without the ghosts of the MGM musical and Gregory Maguire's [book: Wicked] and [book: Son of a Witch] lurking over my shoulder.Definitely liked it more than the musical -- no offense to Judy Garland. Dorothy's comrades are much more interesting in the original, especially little Toto.***August 2008 selection of the GB Book Club.***
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a fantastic children’s book that follows Dorothy and friends through Oz. Although, I never read it as a child (I wish I had shared this with my daughter), I enjoyed it. It is nothing like the classic motion picture (let alone who knows what the new Disney movie has in store). If one is a fan of the film, they may be disappointed by the differences. Haven’t seen the film in its entirety in years, I was able to enjoy the book for what it was. The illustrations by Michael Sieben were, at first, a little disturbing but adds some pizzazz to the story. I see that Sieben is somewhat popular and his illustrations remind me of the wood block prints we used to do in school.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I made the mistake of growing up watching the film and not reading the book until adulthood. They are VERY different. This novel is a lot more graphic and dark. Not at all like the yellow brick road we skipped down with Judy Garland.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Maybe it was because I never read the book when I was young, or maybe I simply don't have an innate appreciation for fantasy literature, but this book--like the movie--is just weird to me. My girls (whom I read the book aloud to) thought that it was pretty good; they have yet to see the movie. All that said, I'm glad to have read it--simply because it makes me feel more culturally literate. : )
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dorothy lives in Kansas,USA.But one day a cyclone blows her house to a country called Oz.There were Dorothy and her dog in it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Warning: this review may spoil the ending of the book for you. Then again, you've probably already seen the movie, haven't you?"The (Wonderful) Wizard of Oz" is in fact a great deal unlike the 1939 film. There are far more characters in Oz, and far less time is spent on the farm in Kansas. I was not surprised to read in the Puffin edition's supplementary material at the end of the book that it was originally banned because its simplistic writing style did not make it seem like quality children's literature. Cornelia Funke states in her introduction to this edition that readers are luckier if they get to make the journey through the book as a child, and I would concur. As an adult, I found it a hard slog to get interested in the book until halfway through, when the characters depart from the Emerald City to complete their task. The chapters are short, the wording is not very descriptive beyond reference to lots of different colours and the way clothing looks, and the action in much of the book seems not to have much storytelling purpose other than to delay the ending a little bit longer. The book reads like a convoluted series of Grimms' fairy tales where the moral is delayed almost entirely to the end, in spite of a few hints throughout here and there. Reference to this moral is not subtle, either. Baum apparently loved to tell children stories, and his novel reads much like a story that he was spinning off stream-of-consciousness, with back-stories thrown in for additional characters here and there just to keep the audience entertained for a wee bit longer. Overall, I felt that the story lacked the sophisticated emotional arcs of tales like "Charlotte's Web" or the linguistic skill of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." I have to admit, though, that I was won over by the ending, for in the movie, it never satisfied me that Dorothy had the power to go home all along, but "had to find out for herself." In the book, it is more clear that if Dorothy had never come to Oz, the Scarecrow would never have got his brains, the Tin Man would never have got his heart, and the Cowardly Lion would never have got his courage, and thus her trials served a purpose. That's a moral that I can get behind; I just wish it had been as wonderful to get to the end of the literary yellow brick road as it was to reach the end of the celluloid one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Remarkably, I never read the Oz books as a kid. Weird, I know, but somehow I never went there. (And truly, this is a weird thing. I read *everything*. Maybe The Wiz was too firmly engrained in my psyche as a movie to register that it was a book first? Or was it a shying away from some aspects of it which seemed too childish for me even as a child? Or was it simply that I never had a copy in the house and the library had much shinier and cooler books to draw my attention? No idea.) This was a freebie on Audible, bless their hearts, and it seemed like time.Oh well.Whether aspects of the story might have been too childish for me once upon a time, aspects of the storytelling certainly were listening to this. The silly voices Anne Hathaway provided became a little much at times; there is only so much time I am willing to spend listening to certain types of cartoony voices. And I confess, being used to the relative conciseness of the MGM version, I became impatient with the rather wandering way in which the actual story was spun out. I wonder if I would have liked this as a child. I wouldn't have been trying so hard to apply logic to it then, though I would still have been comparing it to the movie…
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really loved this little book. It's very simplistically written, but it's very wholesome and funny. There are a fair few differences between the book and the 1939 adaptation, so it was enjoyable reading it as I didn't know everything that happened.

    The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything. “You people with hearts,' he said once, 'have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful.”

    This was an important line to me. It made me consider how we might take our beliefs for granted. If we always believe we are right, we simply trust what we are doing. Whereas, the Tin Woodman without a heart, doesn't trust himself to be good, so he is always purposeful with his actions. And I believe this can pertain to many areas of life.

    “It is such an uncomfortable feeling to know one is a fool.”
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Poor Frank Baum---so often the casual reader comes upon his book after viewing the best movie adaptation ever. The book is a bit different from the film, most notably in the ending, which is far superior to the movie's slick closing.There is little backstory here; instead we are transported almost immediately to the land of Oz. "Wizard" is not nearly as dated as some books from the same era; the fantasy holds up well, we meet some funny characteres and Baum presents a painless moral lesson quickly seen by adults but not quite so quickly by children. A good read-aloud for second or third graders; a good read-alone for fourth or fifth gradeers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is such a charming and magical fairy tale. I'm glad I re-read it. I first read this sometime in elementary school and now, twenty or so years later, I didn't remember it that well. I've seen the movie many times in childhood and later, and I am a fan of Gregory Maguire's Wicked both the book and musical, so when I saw the first three of Baum's classic Oz novels in the used book store I grabbed them up quickly.I remember that, as a child I was actually creeped out by the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman(!) Especially the Woodman because he cut his own arms and legs off. That's a hardcore mental image to process when you're a kid. Now of course I just find it all very charming and sweet. I am also charmed by the way that the Scarecrow wants brains, the Woodman wants a heart and the Lion wants courage, yet they repeatedly prove by their actions that they each have the thing they think they lack. I don't remember if I quite got that as a child, but it made me smile the whole time I was reading it now. Like, aw, what sweethearts they all are!The "Marvelous Land of Oz" itself is magnificently detailed and magical. The map at the front, illustrating the different countries, makes this seem more like an epic fantasy series than a children's series (and indeed, the Del Rey versions that I'm reading are made up to look more like an adult fantasy series, complete with quotes by Ray Bradbury, Terry Brooks, Stephen Donaldson and Gore Vidal) you can see how later children's and adult fantasy series were inspired by Baum's creativity. In the end, The Wizard of Oz is a really fun, magical, charming, quirky book. I don't have children, but it seemed like one that would be a lot of fun to read aloud to a child. It makes for a fast, fun read as an adult. I'm glad I picked up the next two in the series, as I never read beyond the first book as a child, but now I'm pretty curious about them - and I'll be happy to take my time exploring the marvelous land of Oz!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Although I've seen the 1939 film and more recent films, I had no idea what to expect. I remember looking at all of the L. Frank Baum books at the library, but never picked one up.

    I shouldn't be surprised by the darkness in the books, but coming from contemporary children's stories, I seem to have coddled my own understanding of the frankness and abrupt nature that "evil" is dealt with at the turn of the century.

    I enjoyed the book, probably more so because I have so many other versions to compare it to. I have yet to read Wicked, but I prefer this story to the other adaptations.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I made the mistake of growing up watching the film and not reading the book until adulthood. They are VERY different. This novel is a lot more graphic and dark. Not at all like the yellow brick road we skipped down with Judy Garland.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    recommend to children under the age of 10
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Here it is: the book that started it all. I'm so familiar with the beats of the plot that I haven't read the actual text in, probably, a good twenty years, so coming back to it was illuminating. It's a remarkably straightforward, plain-spoken piece of work; the cyclone hits on page 4 of this first edition reproduction, but it would be the second page in any modern edition with a reduced font size and page margins. The final chapter is just three paragraphs. Baum achieves a lot with very little, and if the story comes over as a more strict morality play than the later Oz books, that's okay. There's a lot of imagination and invention in evidence here, and if you think back to the almost non-existent landscape of children's literature at the turn of the 20th century, it's easy to see why this book made such a big splash. There are a few associations with European fairy tale tropes, but mostly, Baum is having a good time modernizing and turning those preconceptions on their head, and tying them to a fantasized version of the frontier America he knew (something that, for whatever reason, most adaptations seem to miss). Abandoning the landscape and hierarchy of European nations gives Oz its own fantasy-land identity, which Baum continued to refine - but never really bettered - in future volumes. And if his prose is formal and his characterization fairly basic, he makes up for it with sheer visual iconography. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a book that provides the framework for a child's imagination, and the figures it provides are unique and vivid enough that we have, unsurprisingly, absorbed them into our American mythology over the past one hundred years.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When Baum went out to write "the American Alice", he came up with Dorothy, niece of a kindly couple of sharecroppers in depression era Kansas. During a twister, her and her dog find themselves in a new, colorful world: Oz. Though the world is pretty, the politics are not. It seems that the witches of the west and east are at odds with the good witch of the north, the great sorceress, and the wizard of Oz. Though the balance is tilted in the favor of the good witch and company shortly after Dorothy flattens the witch of the east with her house.Praised as a hero by the formerly enslaved denizens, she's more concerned with finding her way back home. So, she's off to see the wizard, who can provide a way to get her home.Along the way, she meets an entertaining cast of characters: The scarecrow with no brain, the tin woodsman with no heart, and the cowardly lion. Their off to see the wizard as well, for cures to what ails them.The wizard, though, drives a hard bargain: kill the wicked witch of the west first.It's up to Dorothy and the gang to find a solution that works best for everyone, since she's not a hardened killer, and neither are her comrades.After reading the original source material, I appreciated it much better than the musical of the same name, and I'm sure that any fan of the musical might at the very least appreciate the book, as would those who like the works of Lewis Carroll or J. M. Barrie.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    When I was a child I read practically every classic children's fantasy book I could get my hands on, or had my parents read them to me. From Lewis and Tolkien to MacDonald and Nesbit, we covered almost all the basics. Baum was of course a member of this distinguished company. Yet while I either continued with the others' bibliography or reread those initial beloved works, he pretty much dropped off my radar after a year or two. Then, when I suggested to my five year-old sister that we read something together this summer, her gaze gravitated to the old, battered copy of The Wizard of Oz sitting on my shelf. Thinking that it would be smart to introduce her to the world of "big books" via a story she already knew, and contemplating the poetic justice of one of reading one of my earliest loves to her, I agreed readily. Though in the end it was a satisfying experience, I cannot say that I am as fascinated by Baum's creation as I once was. It is decent, but pales considerably next to some of those other childhood classics. As another reviewer mentioned, the writing is very odd rhythmically, and as I tried to read it aloud I often found myself stumbling over certain sentences and sometimes had to read them over again. Moreover, the characters are fairly cardboard, not fleshed-out people in the style of Lewis' Narnia and other quality children's books. The Scarecrow is the group's Strategical Planner, The Tin Man is Mr. Weepy, and the Lion is the Noise Machine (though for some reason I ended up reading him as a rather stuffy old English gentleman—right-o, chums!). As for Dorothy, she is Everyman, or Everygirl to be more exact. Only she's not a particularly active Everygirl. Though I am just as tired of the corny girl power heroines that seem to plague modern fiction, it would be nice for her to do something useful that advances the plot. On the other hand, this does illustrate what is for me an important lesson—that the simplest of actions, such as helping a Scarecrow down from his pole or throwing a bucket of water in anger, can have cataclysmic effects. Of course, reading aloud is an endeavor that brings its own benefits. It was fun to watch my sister's excitement at discovering the Land of Oz in its literary form; I was surprised to see how much she picked up on that most adults would just brush by; for instance, when I was reading the descriptions of Kansas being gray and bleak she commented, "That's why there's none color at the beginning of the movie!" I also enjoyed trying to enter the world of the book by bringing the characters to life, but I will not be doing my Queen of the Field Mice voice in public anytime soon. For these reasons, I would suggest trying Oz on your children as an introduction to real chapter books, especially considering that most will already be familiar with the plot. But it is not in any sense a favorite of mine.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Anne Hathaway made this such an incredibly fun read. Her voices were fantastic. I highly recommend this audio version for anyone who has always wanted to read the book but has been putting it off.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great fantasy. Much better than the 1939 movie. First read it in '64 I think (age 8 or 9). Read it again in about '82. I also read at least 3 other Oz books back in '64 and '65.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In this first book, Dorothy and her dog Toto, are transported from Kansas via tornado to the land of Oz (specifically to the land of the Munchkins) where she accidentally kills the Wicked Witch of the East when her house lands on her. The only thing left of her are her silver shoes which are enchanted but no one can remember what they do. The Munchkins are very grateful for the Witch of the West was wicked but Dorothy is horrified she has killed someone and desperately wants to go home. The Good Witch of the North tells her to take the Wicked Witch's silver shoes and to travel to the Emerald City of Oz to speak to the Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz, who may be able to send her home. Along the way she meets a Scarecrow (who wants brains), a Tin Man (who wants a heart) and a Cowardly Lion (who wants courage). Dorothy rescues each of them and they agree to travel with her to ask Oz for their wish.

    Unfortunately they get to Oz and find Oz is not willing to grant their wishes unless they do something for him - kill the Wicked Witch of the West. So begins their next journey. They Wicked Witch sees them coming (with her telescopic eye?) and sends her evil wolves, evil crows and evil bees to stop them. When this doesn't work (the Scarecrow and Tin Man defeat them all) she sends her Flying Monkeys to stop them. They spread the Scarecrow out across the land, throw the Tin Man onto some rocks and capture the Cowardly Lion in ropes to take to the Witch. Only Dorothy escapes because of the kiss of protection the Good Witch of the North gave her. The Flying Monkey's do not dare to overcome the power of good apparently, so they take her to the Wicked Witch too.

    The Wicked Witch is also scared of the kiss but realises Dorothy doesn't know she has any power - and so manipulates her into being a slave, plotting to steal her silver shoes. When she finally does manage to steal one shoe, Dorothy becomes so angry she takes the bucket of water she was using to clean and throws it on the Witch calling her mean. Unfortunately the Wicked Witch is vulnerable to water and so melts away. The Winkies are all very grateful and help Dorothy and the Lion rescue the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and they all journey back to Oz to get their rewards.

    Unfortunately they find Oz is no wizard at all but rather a ventriloquist balloonist from Omaha. He manages to grant the wishes of the Scarecrow (brains - bran mixed with pins and needles), the Tin Man (a heart - a sawdust stuffed silk heart) and the Lion (courage - liquid of some description) but is not sure how to fulfill Dorothy's wish to go home. In the end, he makes a hot air balloon, but at the time of departure, Dorothy is busy chasing after Toto and gets left behind. So it's back to the drawing board. It's suggested that Dorothy should go see Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. So they do and Glinda sends the others home and tells Dorothy she just has to click her heels three times and she'll be able to go anywhere in the world. Dorothy does and goes home to Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.

    This book was alright. It's very simplistic - like a fairytale in that and as such there's little character development. I liked the characters well enough - although Oz was my favourite. He amused me. Especially he's comment about being a humbug.

    Oz, left to himself, smiled to think of his success in giving the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman and the Lion exactly what they thought they wanted. "How can I help being a humbug," he said, "when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can't be done?

    Baum, L. Frank. Oz: The Complete Collection (Illustrated) . Maplewood Books. Kindle Edition.


    There were some other funny comments as well. I liked it enough, although for an adult it can be a little boring - but I can see how kids would enjoy the plot and the silliness of the characters. 3 stars, maybe 3.5 for target audience. 2.5 stars from me.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I watched the movie The Wizard of Oz so many times as a child that I practically had the film memorized, but I had never read the book it was based on. Some of the details in the book were changed in the film version. (For instance, Dorothy’s shoes are silver in the book, not red as in the movie.) There are scenes in the book that were left out of the movie. Despite the differences, the book is just as enjoyable as the film. I enjoyed traveling the yellow brick road with Dorothy and Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. And I can’t imagine a narrator who could better Brooke Shields’ audio performance.