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    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
    Ebook146 pages3 hours

    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

    By L. Frank Baum

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    "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is the classic story of fantasy that has delighted readers young and old for decades. Dorothy finds herself transplanted to the magical land of Oz when her house is sucked up by a tornado. To get back home she must follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard to help her get back to Kansas. Along the way she meets several interesting characters including the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion who join her on her travels to ask the Wizard for help of their own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    ISBN9781596257030
    Author

    L. Frank Baum

    L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American author of children’s literature and pioneer of fantasy fiction. He demonstrated an active imagination and a skill for writing from a young age, encouraged by his father who bought him the printing press with which he began to publish several journals. Although he had a lifelong passion for theater, Baum found success with his novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), a self-described “modernized fairy tale” that led to thirteen sequels, inspired several stage and radio adaptations, and eventually, in 1939, was immortalized in the classic film starring Judy Garland.

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    Reviews for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

    4/5

    3,785 ratings181 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I just finished reading this book to my son, who is almost six. He really liked it, which sort of surprised me as it was more challenging for him to stay with than all the picture books and easy readers we usually share. I am very glad that my edition had all the old pictures in it so that it still had a little picture book flavor. That made the transition to more advanced reading easier.

      The one thing I will note: As with the Beatrix Potter stories I also read in my childhood, I was a little surprised at the level of violence in this book. I guess it is just a reminder of how times have changed. But if you are at all worried about creatures of various sorts meeting a rather gruesome demise, I would sit this book out. But I truly believe you would be missing out on a really wonderful story.

      Keep in mind as well that there are some MAJOR differences from the MGM movie -- the ruby slippers are silver, and Glinda is not the same Good Witch as the one at the beginning of the novel. (Spoiler: This change is what makes the movie Glinda seem so awful if you really think about it. She knew the whole time about the slippers and she never said anything?? Not cool.)
    • 5/5
      A great book for the young and old alike. If you're familiar with the movie or with Wicked... throw everything you know away and immerse yourself fully in this wondrous piece of art. Dorothy is a determined, plucky girl, the Wicked Witch is very much a child herself, and the Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman are as humourous and heartfelt as you always thought them to be. I highly recommend this book to every little girl looking for some adventure and humour, and every little boy wanting the same!
    • 4/5
      It's REEEALLLY good. The kind of books I love to read :D It's ''childish'', but not written as though we were children of 5 to understand it. :D
    • 4/5
      A rather wonderful story! There were definitely some differences from the movie, which I found interesting, and I listened to the audiobook, which was a very nice interpretation/performance. I don't feel the political aspects were very pronounced, I'll have to read more analysis of that to understand it better, I suppose.
    • 5/5
      The book is definitely different from the movie. The tale is directed towards youngsters with the use of repeating things and simplified wordings. There is a bit too much violence for a children's book, though. There is a scene where the scarecrow kills crows by snapping their necks.
    • 4/5
      I have been reading this book ever since i was a child. Every time i pick this book up its like I am reading it for the first time again. It is a wonderful childrens book about a young girl named Dorothy. During a tornado she is swept up in her house with her small dog Toto into a wonderful and strange world filled with animals, and objects that can talk, magic witches and wizards, and little people called Munchkins. The second Dorothy touches down in her house, she is finders herself in trouble. This book is a truly wonderful gift for any child that has a wild imagination.
    • 4/5
      This classic novel, as most people know, is about Dorothy from Kansas, who rides in a tornado to OZ and tries to find her way home. This is the first time i ever read this book, and i thought it was very enjoyable.I found this book to be quite imaginative and fun to read as dorothy encounters many strange situations as she is trying to find the way to go back home.
    • 3/5
      Until I bought this book I had no idea it was part of a series. I was lucky enough to visit a friend's house and her grandmother had passed down to her all of the series in the world of Oz. I thought some of the books after the Wonderful Wizard were far more entertaining. However, this is a classic and should thus be respected. Fellow bibliophiles who read the book will be sure to note the vast differences from this and the movie.
    • 3/5
      I liked this book because there are almost no hard words to find in this book. You can read this book also when you're laying down in your bed when your tired.I think this book is suitable for all ages. You can read it when you're 12 years oldbut also when your 70 years old.It fun to watch the movie too, but do this after reading 'the wizzard of oz'.
    • 4/5
      The parable of early 1900's American optimism is very strong in this story. Each character has some latent potential that is being exhibited but not internalized. All of the virtues are fully realized but highly desired: brains, courage, heart, and a longing for home, even if that home is drab Kansas. The story is also a great deal darker in flavor than the film version. The tin man is constantly hacking at animals with his ax and the tin man gets torn to shreds. The witch sends out all sorts of things besides flying monkeys to kill the companions. It was refreshing to read this after filing it away as something to watch while listening to Pink Floyd. I'll read the next ones, especially if Folio Society continues to release these nice editions.
    • 4/5
      As a child, The Wizard of Oz was a constant, a movie that would be watched several times in the course of the year. We'd laugh at the scarecrows antics, sigh at the tin man's desire for a heart and giggle at the cowardly lion. The wicked witch would scare us and Toto would make us want a dog - so I'm not quite sure how it happened that I never managed to get around to reading the books. I decided to end 2010 (and start 2011's reviews) off with reading all fifteen Oz books by L. Frank Baum. I'm glad I made that decision, as after this single book I found myself falling in love in a completely different way with the story. Simplistic and perfect, Baum's writing is easily understood by young and old alike. There's enough of a difference between the book and the movie to keep you interested, even if you've seen the movie as many times as I have (or more!). I laughed and enjoyed myself thoroughly ... now just to find a pretty set to put on my shelves.
    • 4/5
      this story is advemture and fantasy. I read this book after watching the movie when I was 8. And a lot more happens in the book than the movie. I like this classic book becasue eazy to read and exciting. Dorothy and her little dog get blown away during a storm to the another world. She teams up with a scarecrow, tin man and a lion. Each searching for their own thing.
    • 4/5
      Dorothy lives in the west with her aunt and uncle or she did till a tornado swept her and her house to the west. Dorothy mis's her aunt and uncle so she try's to go back but there i lots to stop her.
    • 5/5
      L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of those precious novels that has almost been eclipsed in fame by the movie based on it. I must admit that more than once when picking up this book, I mentally sung to myself, "I'm off to read the wizard, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". And yet as fond as I am of the classic musical, I somehow went through childhood never having read the original text. Berating myself over this, I eagerly downloaded the novel to my Kindle and joyfully read the simple story rather rapidly.Baum really did create a wonderful fantasy story for children with this book. The prose is straightforward but beautifully descriptive and the adventures are quite numerous for such a short story. I was pleased to find that the movie had done justice to the book, but there were also some rather startling discoveries such as Dorothy's not-so-ruby slippers: the magical, iconic Hollywood footwear were originally written to be silver shoes. The book also covers much more of the various people and places in Oz, including the Winkies and the Quadlings, and another surprise was that the winged monkeys were not entirely evil.I really enjoyed experiencing this book as an adult, but I'm rather sure I would have loved it even more as a child. Baum's imagination is extensive and I think Dorothy's adventures have a distinctive bedtime story feel to them. The classic characters of the Lion, Tin Woodsman, and Scarecrow, and even the spunky little dog Toto, make this a story about friendship and love as much as about fantasy and fun. Knowing that no matter how far one travels it is good to be safe and at home again, this story seems to end perfectly with the sighing words, "good night".
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      It occured to me, after reading Finding Oz, that I'd never actually read the book that the oft viewed movie was based on. I should say loosely based: I don't remember dainty china people, or wolves getting decapitated, or magical caps summoning the flying monkeys. Fun and highly imaginative, even without the musical numbers.
    • 3/5
      Baum set out to create a modern myth for children, taking, perhaps, the stories of Hans Christian Andersen as a template. He achieved that, with a story that has passed down through the generations and is as celebrated today as it ever was. However, for many of us - myself particularly - knowledge of the story is clouded by familiarity with the movie versions; so it was nice to go back to the source and see what the original was all about.
    • 4/5
      The hiroine of this story is the brave and sensible Dorothy , who lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in a little house on the gray Kansas prairie . I like this story very much . When I was a elementary school student , I probably read " The Wizard of Oz" much more 5 times. then I think that Oz is drothy. This story is very exciting and interesting because the main caracter is very strange, a lion ,a tinplate toy and a scarecrow. At first sight this conbination is odd but htey are very brave and good friends.After i read this book , I feel preasure . I want to go journy like them and I would like to be excited .
    • 4/5
      This is the classic story of Dorothy, the yellow brick road, etc. The story all of us know. Except with a lot of other things that weren't in the movie at all! All kinds of crazy things, some of which would have been too violent for the movie! It's a charming tale with some really cute illustrations. after reading the second one I liked the second one better because of the illustrations in the second one are different and I liked them better and the fact that this one seemed so strange after being so familiar with the movie and having so many extra and changed things in this one. I see this as a self-chosen book for kids who are reading their own chapter books, or as a choice in a fantasy unit.
    • 4/5
      So, so, so very different from the movie! And so much better! I feel an affection for the story now that I never had before, and I feel much better now about my dislike of the movie considering how much the original story was butchered!
    • 3/5
      The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorite movies as a child, so I was curious to see what the original story was like. I was a little bit disappointed and I definitely like the movie version was better, but it was very interesting to see all the differences between the movie and the book.
    • 3/5
      It's hard to negatively judge a classic, but I was disappointed by this book. I remembering enjoying it as a child so it is probably the adult in me being overly critical. The book is very different from the movie. There are small differences in detail (silver slippers instead of ruby), character (the trio just think they're lacking something: the lion regularly acts brave, the tinman is often emotional, etc), and plot (the wicked Witch of the West only comes into the story when Dorothy and company set off to assassinate her for the Wizard).The book has many fable elements, which is to be expected given Baum apparently wrote it in that style. However, the pacing feels off with the obvious climax (the confrontation with the Witch and the subsequent departure of the Wizard) coming two-thirds of the way through the novel.
    • 4/5
      This book is a true classic. It is such an imaginative story that a child will not be able to put this book down. Baum makes the sentences easy enough for a child to read. There are illustrations throughout the book that will help to break up the text a little bit.In class, you can have the children read the book and then watch the classic movie. They can compare the differences between the two.
    • 3/5
      I don't think many more than a few fans of L. Frank Baum's 14-book Oz series claim The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a favorite. Speaking as a childhood Oz fan myself, I always considered this as not much more than a forgettable set-up for the much more interesting excursions that occur later in the series (with Ozma, and Glinda, and Captain Bill, and *insert your favorite combination of characters here*).Rereading this now, as an adult, it's easy to see why: Baum's prose here is rather stilted and almost dour at times. It's not helped along by W. W. Denslow's illustrations, which, while rather intelligently using the limited color-printing to great effect, interpret Oz almost as a toy land. His Dorothy and crew in action seem almost dumpy and static, posed doll-like even, in comparison to the more sprightly drawings of John R. Neill (illustrator of the remaining 13 books by Baum, and the next 24 canon Oz books, including three he penned himself).Yet in one way, Baum was entirely successful: he created a new American fairy tale. His talent for creating memorable characters created from both pillaged archetypes (echoes of parables and folktales abound) and strange invention is in full force here. And they tap into symbolic universal struggles. The iconic Dorothy, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, the humbug Wizard- they’ve become intrinsic within pop culture. In that way, I’m really glad I reread it, not taking my own memories, “the populist interpretation”, Wicked, etc- as “good-enough” readings of the text.This Oz isn’t the Technicolor dreamland of the 1939 MGM musical; this isn’t the joyful utopian adventure-land I remember. The land of Oz surprised me in both its simplicity and dangerous charm. The characters astounded me over and over again: Dorothy’s blessed frank and common-sense nature, the Scarecrow philosophical argument about the benefits of mind over heart, the Wizard’s people-pleasing nature, the Tin Man’s combination of compassionate heart and brutal ax hand. Please don’t take my word for it- it’s something new and something old… and unforgettable.
    • 4/5
      I think this is a great book for all to read. It is slightly different than the movie and gives insight on the historical happenings during that time. The imagery is not as colorful as the movie, the illustrations are far and few between which was kind of disappointing. Overall their are excellent messages for children to pick up on and ideals to grasp and understand. The quotes by the characters are priceless. I love the fact that the Scarecrow doesn't think he has a brain, yet is able to talk, think and behave as though he does. The characters are lacking confidence in themselves, when everything they wanted was right there in front of them in their actions. Great book, not surprised it has been around for 100 plus years!!
    • 5/5
      ** spoiler alert ** After reading Wicked, I realized that I had never actually read The Wizard of Oz. I had seen the movie, which is very different. I was very pleasantly surprised by the book. It is full of action and the character development is done quite well. My favorite part in the whole book is the description of the Emerald City being white, and that it only appears emerald because everyone is made to wear emerald glasses. I highly recommend this book, especially if you have only ever seen the movie.
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful book to read, especially if you love the movie, but you must be aware that the book is considerably different than the movie. I think this is a case where the majority of people will have seen the movie before reading the book, and therefore may not like the book. For example, the Emerald City is actually white, did you know that? They also encounter many talking animals such as a stork that saves the scarecrow and a mouse who is a queen. This book is much more detailed than the movie, as most books are.I would recommend this book for my library (medium public library).
    • 5/5
      This is a really, really enjoyable book and is one of those must read books. I really, really liked it.In this story a cyclone hits Dorothy's house in Kansas and, the cyclone caries Dorothy and her little dog Toto to a faraway land called "The land of Oz".There, she meets four new friends...The Scarecrow, The Tin Woodman and The Cowardly Lion.So Dorothy and her friends decide to go to a famous wizard called Oz. They all want to go there for a reason...Dorothy -To get back to Kansas, The Scarecrow -To get new brains, The Tin Woodman -To get a heart and The Cowardly Lion Wants to get.Will Dorothy and her friends make it to the Great Oz?
    • 4/5
      I suppose it's really a wonderful story. Although it was made for children, I believe anyone can read and enjoy it. This tale shows us a kind of magic world which is not much different of our own (excluding the talking animals off course). A little girl who has been lost in the strange land of OZ seeks for a way to get back home. She has been told about a powerful wizard which is the only one that could help her, travelling through an unknown land she finds a group of peculiar characters who have some "terrible problems" and she convinced all of them to follow her and maybe get their "problems" solved too. In this adventure we can reflect about some society's stereotypes and behaviors and take a good lesson for our lives. This is an essential reading for the kids and could be much pleasured for the adults!Tip: If English is not your native language, that's a very nice story to practice the reading!
    • 3/5
      A girl named Dorothy finds herself wisked of to the magcal land of Oz. There she meets a lion, a tin man, and a scarecrow. They want to go to the Emerald City to get help.

    Book preview

    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum

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