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Title: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
ISBN: 0486247147
Author:
L. Frank Baum
Publicate Date: 1984-10-01
Publish: 1984-10-01
List Price: $9.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.75
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $9.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Unfortunately, I think Oz jumped the shark in the next book.
I have wonderful memories of my father reading the first few Oz books to me at bedtime, and this one might just be my favorite. I'm not entirely sure why Baum chose the title, as they really barely get to Oz at all in this book, but whatever. The worlds they discover on their way to Oz are just as delightful, frightening, and mind-blowing as Oz itself.
I'd highly recommend this as a gift for an open-minded kid who likes fantasy. The text is also available for free online, since it's public domain and awesome--check it out!
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2: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz...or not.
Not the greatest of the Oz books. True, we get the return of the Wizard, but it lacks the excitement and intrigue of the other books. It's not until the gang reaches Emerald City that the book gets really exciting. I did like the idea behind the Kingdom of the Vegetables, but the way it came out, and the journey before it and after just fell really really flat. The new characters, Jim and Zeb, also added absolutely nothing to the plot that we didn't already . But still, it's L. Frank Baum, so I can't rate it all that badly. Not to mention, the reunion of the Wizard with the rest of Emerald City was just amazing to read, because after the Wizard of Oz, who would have thought we'd ever see that reunion, right? Awesome!
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3: No illustrations!
We ordered this to read to our 5-year old. When we received it and discovered it had no illustrations we sent it back. The original O'Neill illustrations are so wonderful in the other ones.
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4: Another good yarn
This is another good yarn for the kiddos. Baum's storytelling holds up well and his little lessons are timeless (e.g. the dragonettes insisting beauty is the eye of the beholder) in this unique take on a center-of-the earth story. The science is a bit poor in this book as we see earthquakes swallowing people whole, California being beset by gaping quakes every half hour, gravity lessening at the earth's core, and so forth. Nonetheless, this is easy to look past when the audience is small children as opposed to teenagers.
All said and told, this was the least interesting story so far in my opinion, but fine for my young son and fine enough for me to continue purchasing the series.
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5: Quake Takes Kansas Kid and Co. to Oz
For the third time, Dorothy is swept up by terrifying events, this time falling through the earth in a California quake accompanied by a kid named Zeb, a horse called Jim, and Eureka the cat, who has replaced Toto. They all fall past weird, colored suns and land in the domain of the Mangaboos, who are vegetable people. True to nineteenth century plots (OK, this one was written in 1908), the natives are hostile, but the intrepid American kids and their animals defeat all the baddies. The kids are now accompanied by the Wizard, who, in his balloon, has also fallen through a crack. They fight with invisible bears and with flying wooden gargoyles before they reach Oz via a classic deus ex machina turn of events. The first three-quarters of the book is vintage Oz adventure stuff---kids will love it and so will you, no matter what age you are. I have loved this book ever since I first read it well over half a century ago. I remember how dark and dangerous it seemed to me then. The impressions of the underground scenes lasted in my mind for decades. Even when I read the end of Zola's "Germinal", I remembered DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ--not perhaps so sophisticated a comment, but true anyhow. The last quarter is a kind of reunion, where we say hello to all the old characters and see how they are doing. It's like Baum ran out of ideas, but since he wrote a book every year, millions of kids were probably waiting for an update (similar to the Harry Potter series.) They would have been happy to read about their favorite characters again. I know I was.
This volume in Baum's series may not be the most exciting or well-written, but it had a special atmosphere, very threatening, with more violence than normal in Oz books---cutting, shooting, burning, etc. The reunion and party scenes at the end, including the bad behavior of the American animals, and their return home, are probably too long. Still, if you are an Oz fan, or want to be, you can't miss DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ.
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