The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A cyclone carries Dorothy and her dog Toto to the magical Land of Oz. To get home she follows the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, with a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodman and a Cowardly Lion. By L. Frank Baum (1900). A public-domain classic.
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How it begins Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room; and this room contained a rusty looking cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner, and Dorothy a little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellar—except a small hole dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else. Keep reading →About this story
A cyclone lifts Dorothy’s farmhouse out of Kansas and sets it down in a country of witches, talking scarecrows and roads made of yellow brick. To get home she must see the Wizard of Oz, and on the way she is joined by a scarecrow who wants a brain, a woodman who wants a heart, and a lion who wants courage.
L. Frank Baum published it in 1900, with pictures by W. W. Denslow, and wrote thirteen more Oz books after it. The 1939 film changed a good deal, so the book will surprise people who only know the movie: the shoes are silver, not ruby, and the tone is plainer and stranger.
- Themes
- Home, courage, friendship, finding what you already have
- Good for
- Reading aloud, children and adults, and anyone who wants to compare the book with the film
- Worth noticing
- What the Wizard turns out to be, and what he gives each traveller.
Chapters
- 1The Cyclone5 min · 14 Oct
- 2The Council with the Munchkins9 min · 14 Oct
- 3How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow9 min · 14 Oct
- 4The Road Through the Forest7 min · 14 Oct
- 5The Rescue of the Tin Woodman9 min · 14 Oct
- 6The Cowardly Lion7 min · 14 Oct
- 7The Journey to the Great Oz8 min · 14 Oct
- 8The Deadly Poppy Field9 min · 14 Oct
- 9The Queen of the Field Mice7 min · 14 Oct
- 10The Guardian of the Gate9 min · 14 Oct
- 11The Wonderful City of Oz16 min · 14 Oct
- 12The Search for the Wicked Witch16 min · 14 Oct
- 13The Rescue6 min · 14 Oct
- 14The Winged Monkeys9 min · 14 Oct
- 15The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible12 min · 14 Oct
- 16The Magic Art of the Great Humbug5 min · 14 Oct
- 17How the Balloon Was Launched6 min · 14 Oct
- 18Away to the South6 min · 14 Oct
- 19Attacked by the Fighting Trees5 min · 14 Oct
- 20The Dainty China Country7 min · 14 Oct
- 21The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts4 min · 14 Oct
- 22The Country of the Quadlings5 min · 14 Oct
- 23Glinda The Good Witch Grants Dorothy’s Wish6 min · 14 Oct
- 24Home Again1 min · 14 Oct