The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

And I am off...off for a year of Oz.

Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle will start a readalong of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. The Book Stop, home of a fellow Oz fan, will be joining Lory as co-host.

There are 14 books, and the plan is to start in December and read in published order through January of 2025.

If you're not up for such a commitment, though, there will be a stopping point at the end of the first six books. Baum actually tried to end the series here — he wanted to write other things — but his fans wouldn't let him, so he reluctantly went back to writing an Oz book a year till the end of his life. The later books have some good parts, but the first six are probably the strongest. You'll get a good taste of Oz that way, even if you don't go further.

It's not necessary to read all of them, or read them in order. Feel free to dip in as you wish.
There will be a monthly post on each book, at The Enchanted Castle or at The Book Stop or both, and a roundup of any posts that are shared with us. #Ozathon24 is the hashtag for sharing.

Part I: Essential Oz Adventures

December, 2023: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
January, 2024: The Marvelous Land of Oz
February, 2024: Ozma of Oz
March, 2024: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
April, 2024: The Road to Oz
May, 2024: The Emerald City of Oz

Part II: Further Journeys in Oz

June, 2024: The Patchwork Girl of Oz
July, 2024: Tik-Tok of Oz
August, 2024: The Scarecrow of Oz
September, 2024: Rinkitink in Oz
October, 2024: The Lost Princess of Oz
November, 2024: The Tin Woodman of Oz
December, 2024: The Magic of Oz
January, 2025: Glinda of Oz


An online book club chose Finding Dor0thy. Then our film club picked Wizard of Oz. It seemed like a good time to reread The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

If you are a fan of the movie, you will find little to disturb you. Some scenes in the movie have been condensed from the book (the witch makes four attempts to secure the four wanderers before succeeding in the book, rather than the one in the movie) and the trip to visit the good witch after the departure of the wizard is omitted completely in the movie, and, of course, the beginning and ending scenes in Kansas are a completely fabrication in the movie, but the movie has generally stayed true to the book.

I think children will still find the book captivating.

This is a fun, classic adventure. There are some stories that have a clear message that is well delivered. It doesn't need a lot of contemplation to get the point, but the story illustrates the point well. The Wizard of Oz is one of these stories and I think that is a big reason it is a classic that is read and loved by many still. I look forward to sharing this story and talking about what real wisdom, courage, and love look like with my son.

pretty delightful

I re-read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for the February prompt of the Buzzwords reading channel (positive words; “wonderful), and decided to read this Usborne illustrated edition that I bought a while back.

Obviously the story itself is 5 stars for me, because I have a life-long Oz fixation, but 5 stars for this particular edition because it's so stunning. The illustrations by Lorena Alvarez Gomez are so bright and expressive, and feature really gorgeous interpretations of the characters. The pages are a thick, glossy paper to really make those colors pop, and it comes with a rich green bookmark ribbon.

It's a really special edition that isn't too big or too expensive that you feel you can't actually read it, but is still a wonderful keepsake that will look lovely on a shelf too.

Runs very close to the film with the major story beats, with a couple of additional scenes (including a slightly different ending and some expansion of certain scenes from the classic movie). All in all, it does feel like it is one of the rare times that the creative liberties that the movie took actually enhanced the decent story here. Quick and easy to get through and while written well, it probably trends a tad too much towards a children's book at times for the average adult reader.

Sissy, sussy, sick (my brain why)

This book is a bit worn by time because the author's intentions were pacifistic, but he still included some good old murder for good measure and the standarts of the market. It's a very fun book that sometimes forgets it's logic, Woodman in particular is written inconsistently. I really liked the moral, psychological message it had, but the slaying was hillarious and out of place.

8/10

While I, of course, knew of the Wizard of Oz, I had never actually read the book...until now! What a wonderful children's story! I loved the story and can see what it is such a children's classic. Highly recommended.

“Brains are the only things worth having in this world, no matter whether one is a crow or a man.”

― L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

A great and quite young kids book, original character ideas written in a simple easy to follow style with short chapters. Impossible to separate this book from the movie so I'll never really know what it was like to read this for the first time. If I ever had kids it would be a delight reading this to them.

But I think the yellowbrick road is still too tempting for that.

The Wizard of Oz is one of my father's favorite movies, so it's something I've seen a million times since I was a kid. I feel like the first novel in the series, albeit missing all musical numbers (making me miss “if I only had a brain”), still holds that wonder and childlike naivety that has made people love the movie for so long.

I will say that some of it was pretty dark though, especially in the sense of what was acceptable back then for “children's stories.” Like the tin man describing each and every part of his body getting chopped off by his own axe slipping, just making me imagine his bleeding stumps gushing as he pleas for help from the tin maker.

Or how, due to his lack of heart, he finds it necessary to help and save all those who are in need of help. Therefore, he takes it upon himself to lop off the head of a wild cat simply for hunting... which is something the cowardly lion had already offered to do with a deer for Dorothy.

Or how Dorothy had to wake up to 40 shaggy, beheaded wolves?!!

I liked this book a lot though and I'm definitely going to continue on to the others at some point. Everyone gets there happy ending, so now I'm wondering if he goes back and takes it all away!

This is a story really and truly written for children. I think adults are used to children's stories also being made with a layer to please them. Nope, the story – while interesting – is not fleshed out or written to operate on a deeper level.

I enjoyed reading it with an eye to the way the story has become part of our cultural heritage, but inherently a compelling read? Not really. :)

But it is a very quick read.

It's the Wizard of Oz, so I doubt I can add any insight to the story. It has been on my shelf for quite a while, so I got it down to read yesterday. I never realized how different the book and movie are. The main plot points and characters remain, but very little else. The wicked witch of the west was really only present for 2 or 3 very short chapters because the story moves fairly quickly from one point to another. It almost seems like a string of fairy tales or fables that are strung together by a central story. I think I would like to see an adaption that was closer to the actual book, one that highlights the specific colors/countries the way Baum wrote and has the short stories interwoven into the main plot. The book was not quite what I was expecting, but it was a quick pleasant read. It was innocent and concise, and there was a morals a plenty.

বাচ্চাদের বই যেমন হয় আরকি, সরল, হ্যাপি এন্ডিং। তবে টুইস্টও আছে। বড়দের পড়ার জন্যও মন্দ না।

I would have been fine just sticking with the movie and Wicked. I don't feel compelled to read any of the sequels. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I'd first read it as a kid.

Read out of sheer inertia because it was tacked on at the end of the Kindle edition of [b:Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West 37442 Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1) Gregory Maguire https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1370992578s/37442.jpg 1479280]. It's okay I guess. It's not really very interesting.

I have seen the Wizard of Oz classic movie starring Judy Garland a number of times. Although it is not one of my favorite movies I do consider it a work of art, with its unique use of sepia tone and also color all presented in the movie. Now finally reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum in my opinion the book is better than the movie. With many classic fairytales the original book is usually a lot dark and harsher than a modern adaptation of the movie. To not spoil anything in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the book has more darker elements. Which for a children's book I was a little shocked to read. Along with this we are given the back stories of the tin man, the scarecrow, the lion and the wizard of oz. I do wish that some of these sections would have been left in the movie adaption. Along with this, the book also explores more sections of Oz that are not displayed in the movie. I do understand that with a movie written for a bigger commercial use, there are time limits as with a book there really are not any limitations. Overall, I'm happy to have seen the movie first because I think if I would have read the book first my expectations of the movie would have been higher. I also liked that the book was different than the movie, because when reading the book, I didn't picture the movie version in my head. I would definitely recommend the book to anyone who has or hasn't watched the movie. There are also about twelve or thirteen more books in this series which talk more about Oz and the people who live there.

This book, despite its age, truly surprised me. I found myself feeling concerned with some of the messages contained within the storyline; beauty equals love, performing acts of service justifies entitlement, etc. Baum's introduction specifically sets the reader up for failure by explaining his intention to avoid scaring his readers through dark elements, which he does repeatedly. I thought the writing was poor, despite his target audience and, yes, I adjusted for generational gaps.

The audiobook read by Anne Hathaway is simply lovely!

It was pretty good. The introduction to this edition talked about how the author had originally told this story aloud to the neighborhood kids, and that you can still see how the details and plot line are better suited to an oral tale. I agree completely, and I enjoyed the story best when I took the time to read it to myself with the inflections and phrasing that one would use if reading it aloud.

Short Review: I picked the audiobook up free and listened to it based on the assumption that the book and the movie were probably different. I was surprised that the unabridged audio was just over 3 hours. Anne Hathaway did a good job as narrator. It is worth picking up just to compare the movie and book. Mostly minor differences, but it is a decent young adult book.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/wizard-of-oz/

I needed another book to read aloud to the kids and this one was available. It's been around since 1900! It was very interesting to see all the differences from the well-known movie. The first difference that strikes you is that the Ruby Slippers are actually Silver Shoes. And nobody ever says “Follow the yellow brick road!” Instead, “the road of yellow brick” is mentioned. There's more interesting back-stories to the origins of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. It's kind of cool and a little gruesome getting into the Tin Woodman's back story – it's much more in keeping with fairy tales of old. But it's dealt with so matter-of-factly that my two kids didn't blink an eye at any of it. They enjoyed the story and looked forward to every night's reading from it. As for me, it was fun actually reading the source material to such an old, well-loved movie.

This was a fun read. I decided to read it after playing on online game of the same name and wondering which, the game or the movie, was truer to the book. Oddly enough the online game was a more accurate interpretation. I enjoyed it.

Like many people, I was familiar with the film, but had never read any of the books in the OZ series, so I gave this one a shot. I was pleasantly surprised to discover hos different is was. The plot's essentially the same, but expanded on, and we get a lot more world-building. Dorothy, also, comes across as a much stronger, more realized character, and her increased self-assurance really makes for a more enjoyable story.