I’ve been thinking about The Wizard of Oz ever since it came up the other day. Even before posting about it I have been reading it to my five year old so it was on the brain.
As a child I read and reread several of the “Oz” books, but somehow never picked up the first in the series and only just now realized there are thirteen sequels to the book! My main reason for not reading the original story was mostly because I’d seen the movie eleventy kajillion times and thought I would be bored. I had forgotten how much I adore L. Frank Baum’s style. There is something totally whimsical and enchanting about his stories and the writing is witty and wonderfully entertaining.
“Tell me something about yourself, and the country you came from,” said the Scarecrow, when she had finished her dinner. So she told him all aout Kansas, and how grey evertything was there, and how the cyclone had carried her to this queer Land of Oz.
The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, “I cannot understnad why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, grey place you call Kansas.”
“That is because you have no brains,” answered the girl. “No matter how dreary and grey our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.”
The Scarecrow sighed
“Of course I cannot understand it,” he said. “If your heads were stuffed with straw, like mine, you would probably all live in the beautiful places, and then Kansas would have no people at all. It is fortunate for Kansas that you have brains.”
-L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz
November 20th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I had no idea there was actually a Wizard of Oz book. It looks like fun reading. The style reminds me of the original Winnie the Pooh stories, which I didn’t read until I was 20-something. They are hilarious!