The Oz Chronicles, Volume 1 by L. Frank Baum
This was a Borders Classic bargain book set. I love young adult and kids books. I remember when I was a kid, every Christmas The Wizard of Oz was on TV. I honestly can't remember if I've seen the thing all the way through or not. I know the story, though, and so I thought I'd read the books. This is definitely NOT the way to read them, though. The stories get more and more tedious as you keep reading. Baum inexplicably gives Dorothy some sort of speech impediment that keeps her from pronouncing all the syllables of words. The puns get worse and worse. You get the sense that even Baum wants desperately to stop writing, but I guess as part of his deal with Satan, he doesn't. Every book starts with how he wasn't going to write any more, but "the children" begged him. Even when he told them it was impossible for Dorothy to tell him any more of her stories, "the children" found a way around the problem. I began to suspect "the children" to be either a euphemism for Baum's agent or the spawn of Beelzebub. It's strange to think that children were once so easily amused. Have our tastes become so sophisticated, or are we just so jaded?
Book one is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. it basically follows the movie, except I don't remember the flying monkeys being a race on their own that the Wicked Witch enslaved. I also wonder why the makers of the movie added the end where she wakes up and realizes it was all just a dream. But then why do movie makers change anything when turning a novel into a movie?
Book two is The Marvelous Land of Oz. This book introduces the boy Tip who is being kept as a servant to Old Mombi. It introduces the Powder of Life that brings several new characters to life, in this story and in others. Tip turns out to really be Princess Ozma, the ruler of Oz who had been held captive while the Wicked Witch was in control of parts of Oz.
Book three is Ozma of Oz. This book introduces Dorothy to Ozma and introduces Dorothy's strange speech "pattern. Poor Uncle Henry is sick and is sent to Australia for his health. Dorothy is washed ashore on the portion of land separated from Oz by The Deadly Desert. She encounters the Nomes and steals the king's magic belt, which is able to send her back to Kansas.
Book four is Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. In this book, Dorothy is in California, where, of course, there is a earthquake. This causes a huge hole to open up, which Dorothy, her kitten Eureke, Zeb Hugson the cart driver, and Jim the cab-horse plummet into. They then have to find their way out, encountering the Wizard along the way. One of the tricks he performs is to turn one piglet into nine tiny little piglets, and I have to admit, I wish i could have one of those little piglets.
Book five is The Road to Oz. Dorothy tries to help a Shaggy Man avoid the road to Butterfield and ends up lost when a fork in the road turns into about seven forks in the road. They choose one to follow, meet stupid Button-Bright and Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter before finally reaching Oz where they discover it's Ozma's birthday and this was her way of inviting Dorothy to the party. Ozma has obviously never heard of a letter.
Book six is The Emerald City of Oz. Poor Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are losing the farm and feel they can no longer support Dorothy, so they encourage her to go live in Oz, which they don't believe in. So basically her two guardians are encouraging their ward to live in what they believe to be an imaginary land with her imaginary friends. That's good parenting, there. Thankfully Oz is real and they all go live there. Here Baum makes his strongest attempt to extricate himself from the Oz stories by having Ozma cut Oz off from all the rest of the world because they say planes may land there. But we are not so lucky.
Book seven is The Patchwork Girl of Oz, which Dorothy relates to Baum via telegraph (thanks, Samuel Morse. Thanks a lot.) In this story, Ojo and Unc Nunkie travel from their home because they are running low on food. They go to the Crooked Magician, who invented the Powder of Life back in book two. He brings the patchwork girl, Scraps, to life as a servant for his wife. Unfortunately his wife and Unc Nunkie are covered with a petrifaction potion and turned to stone. Ojo has to travel around getting ingredients for a potion to unfreeze them, but the Tin Woodsman won't let them have the left wing of a yellow butterfly so Glinda the Good Witch teaches the Wizard how to make everything right.
I intend to put at least one other novel in between each story of the next two volumes to give some distance this time. I am dreading having to start them, but if I can finish them, I can get rid of them. That's something I am really looking forward to.
Book one is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. it basically follows the movie, except I don't remember the flying monkeys being a race on their own that the Wicked Witch enslaved. I also wonder why the makers of the movie added the end where she wakes up and realizes it was all just a dream. But then why do movie makers change anything when turning a novel into a movie?
Book two is The Marvelous Land of Oz. This book introduces the boy Tip who is being kept as a servant to Old Mombi. It introduces the Powder of Life that brings several new characters to life, in this story and in others. Tip turns out to really be Princess Ozma, the ruler of Oz who had been held captive while the Wicked Witch was in control of parts of Oz.
Book three is Ozma of Oz. This book introduces Dorothy to Ozma and introduces Dorothy's strange speech "pattern. Poor Uncle Henry is sick and is sent to Australia for his health. Dorothy is washed ashore on the portion of land separated from Oz by The Deadly Desert. She encounters the Nomes and steals the king's magic belt, which is able to send her back to Kansas.
Book four is Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. In this book, Dorothy is in California, where, of course, there is a earthquake. This causes a huge hole to open up, which Dorothy, her kitten Eureke, Zeb Hugson the cart driver, and Jim the cab-horse plummet into. They then have to find their way out, encountering the Wizard along the way. One of the tricks he performs is to turn one piglet into nine tiny little piglets, and I have to admit, I wish i could have one of those little piglets.
Book five is The Road to Oz. Dorothy tries to help a Shaggy Man avoid the road to Butterfield and ends up lost when a fork in the road turns into about seven forks in the road. They choose one to follow, meet stupid Button-Bright and Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter before finally reaching Oz where they discover it's Ozma's birthday and this was her way of inviting Dorothy to the party. Ozma has obviously never heard of a letter.
Book six is The Emerald City of Oz. Poor Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are losing the farm and feel they can no longer support Dorothy, so they encourage her to go live in Oz, which they don't believe in. So basically her two guardians are encouraging their ward to live in what they believe to be an imaginary land with her imaginary friends. That's good parenting, there. Thankfully Oz is real and they all go live there. Here Baum makes his strongest attempt to extricate himself from the Oz stories by having Ozma cut Oz off from all the rest of the world because they say planes may land there. But we are not so lucky.
Book seven is The Patchwork Girl of Oz, which Dorothy relates to Baum via telegraph (thanks, Samuel Morse. Thanks a lot.) In this story, Ojo and Unc Nunkie travel from their home because they are running low on food. They go to the Crooked Magician, who invented the Powder of Life back in book two. He brings the patchwork girl, Scraps, to life as a servant for his wife. Unfortunately his wife and Unc Nunkie are covered with a petrifaction potion and turned to stone. Ojo has to travel around getting ingredients for a potion to unfreeze them, but the Tin Woodsman won't let them have the left wing of a yellow butterfly so Glinda the Good Witch teaches the Wizard how to make everything right.
I intend to put at least one other novel in between each story of the next two volumes to give some distance this time. I am dreading having to start them, but if I can finish them, I can get rid of them. That's something I am really looking forward to.
Comments
Post a Comment