Public reader discussion about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the WeRead Catalog by L. Frank Baum.
By springTiger9
So yeah, I’m kind of at a loss for what to do today, and I randomly started recording *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* this morning. (It’s in the public domain, so that part feels nice.) I’m honestly enjoying going back through the story and thought I’d drop it here in case anyone wants to listen to yet another recording of the book. This one’s just the first seven chapters for now, but I plan to keep going.
By looksbridge
If you don’t want to go hunting for random links, here’s the setup: Dorothy’s out in the middle of the Kansas prairies with Uncle Henry (the farmer) and Aunt Em (his wife). Their place is tiny because the lumber had to be hauled forever, so it’s basically one room with four walls, a stove, a cupboard, a table, some chairs, and the beds in the corners. No attic, and no proper cellar either—just that little “cyclone cellar” hole you can get to through a trapdoor in the floor, with a ladder down into the dark. And yeah, I guess I’m kind of a snob, but I do think the opening works really well. It’s bare-bones and not super elaborate, but that’s the point. It kind of hits you with how bleak everything is, like the land and their life are both just… grim.
By Cloud-Prose45
I figured going in that the book version of The Wizard of Oz wasn’t going to match the movie at all. I also knew it’s part of a whole bigger series, and it was written way over a hundred years ago, so I wasn’t sure my kids (5 and 7) would even get it. Still, I tried it. Wow. What a weird, fun book. It’s definitely different from the film, but the wild part is how some things line up immediately—like the whole Kansas in black-and-white, then Oz flips to color thing. That’s honestly the strangest detail. And the adventure felt more like The Hobbit than like some super-sweet candyland vibe. I’ll leave spoilers alone, but the Tin Man is a total badass with his axe, and the Scarecrow goes up against crows in this really intense way. The Wizard is way scarier too, and the witch kind of gets introduced and then basically melted in one chapter. Pretty chaotic. The whole thing is basically one subplot after another, but somehow there’s still a bigger theme running underneath. I also didn’t feel like it was dated at all—both the story pacing and the language seemed fine. My kids were hooked the whole time. Afterward they begged to watch the movie, and yeah… they weren’t thrilled. “Dorothy looked too old.” (she was) “I thought there would be more singing.” (there wasn’t) “And why didn’t the Tin Man just chop everyone’s heads off?” (I had no idea, other than maybe that would’ve been a big musical moment) If you want a quick read, I’d say check it out. It’s light fantasy for reading to kids, but it also feels like proper classic literature. And if you love Oz and want more of the backstory the movie is based on, this is where you’d get it—especially with the Tin Man stuff. Has anyone read the rest of the series? I haven’t told my kids about them yet, but should I be?
By springTiger9
I don’t even know how to say it, but it felt huge getting PBS on cable for free when I was a kid in Canada in the 90s.
By blankit
I feel like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1986) sticks closest to the original novel. It seems like it gets a lot more loose with the later books, but the first one is pretty much right.
By cipherSail937
I’ve been trying to get into more classic fantasy that’s before Tolkien, so I went ahead and tore through all of Baum’s stuff. I read the whole Oz series, plus Dot and Tot of Merryland, The Magical Monarch of Mo (I guess that’s the one that came first and feels like a real forerunner to Wizard of Oz), Queen Zixi, and Life of Santa Claus. Honestly, every single book felt weirdly magical in a way I can’t really describe, and I love them just as much now as I think I would have when I was a kid. But then I was looking into it and realized the Oz universe is way bigger than I thought, with more books in the “official” canon written by other people. Are any of those worth picking up, even if they probably won’t match Baum for the vibe, how it’s written, the characters, all that?
By pathLate
I generally liked the Oz books, even if they’re pretty simple. They’re definitely entertaining though. The first one feels the most basic—like you’re just watching the characters hop from place to place, not a lot of inner thoughts or much narration, almost like an adventure summary. What I really liked is the cast. Each book has different characters that feel kind of unique, and the “main focus” swaps around a lot, so it doesn’t always feel the same. As for the characters, I always felt the Cowardly Lion is the least important of the original group. He barely shows up, and when he does it’s usually with the Hungry Tiger. Dorothy, on the other hand, feels like the opposite—she’s curious and not really scared of anything, and she actually seems to be having fun in the adventures. Like in “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz,” her vibe is “this is interesting!” while Zeb is freaked out. One of my favorites was Rinkitink in Oz. It doesn’t even feel like it was originally meant to be an Oz book, but I thought the main adventure had the best development and there wasn’t as much random stuff going on. Also later books seem to lean more into the magic and the rules of Oz—Ozma and Polychrome end up way more magical, using more magic and gaining powers. And I like the Nome King as a villain, and his whole kingdom shows up across different books. The one weird thing is that there’s a book where he loses his memory, but then comes back remembering everything and evil again, which was still kind of fun. Meanwhile the Wicked Witch is funny to me because she basically only matters in one book, even though she’s everywhere in adaptations. I kinda wish the Nome King was more of a big deal. On the other hand… the immortality stuff doesn’t really click for me. It feels like the series contradicts itself a lot. At first it’s not even a thing, and then later it gets expanded and changed in different books, so every time they bring it up I’m just like “wait, which is it?” Same with other retcons—Oz’s history, Ozma’s past, the Wizard’s backstory and personality, all of it feels like it gets rewritten depending on the book. Even small stuff like the Love Magnet works differently sometimes. And it’s also weird that the Good Witch of the North just disappears like she never existed, and suddenly it’s like only Glinda and the Wizard are “allowed” to use magic. The Wizard also definitely wasn’t meant to be a good guy at first, but later he changes a ton, probably just because the books got popular and the author kept going. The end of book 6 is funny too—like it was supposed to be the end of the series, with magic to remove Oz from the world, but then the author clearly didn’t stop. There’s even that letter from Dorothy saying goodbye to the kids and that we wouldn’t hear from Oz again… and then it only lasted about three years before another Oz book came out. And yeah, I liked the Santa Claus book. I’d already seen the 2000 animated version, but I enjoyed the fantasy origin story for him—like the different fairies and spirits—and it also gave a pretty wild version of where Christmas traditions came from.
By memoryPlanet47
One of the Blu-ray versions of the 1939 movie includes this as an extra. It definitely feels like a TV movie from that era and you can tell, but honestly it’s still pretty solid and I had fun watching it.
By RestlessBlue72
I read a bio about Baum, and to me it seemed pretty clear he was kind of progressive, and the editorials were probably supposed to be taken as irony. Like the “Why not annihilation?” line doesn’t feel like a real suggestion so much as a rhetorical jab at people who were trying to take land from the natives, knowing it would leave them without anything and basically starving.
By luckywindow1990
You probably know the idea I mean — that The Wizard of Oz is really an allegory for the Gold Standard and 19th century Populism. Is that theory automatically bad on its own? I don’t think so. Honestly, I think it’s a little out there, but sure, you could argue for it. But man, I really hate it when people act like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is clearly and undeniably about the Gold Standard. I had at least two teachers in high school say that, and I’ve seen people online say it like it’s just a fact. Then when you actually dig into it, not only did Baum never confirm that theory, it also got made up like 60 years after the book came out in 1900. And even with that, people still go “no, it is an allegory, sorry, it’s not that innocent.” Yeah, it’s kind of a dumb thing to get mad about, but as someone who hopes to be a published author someday, it just annoys me. Especially since everything I’ve read says Baum wanted The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to be an American fairy tale for kids, kind of like Alice in Wonderland, and Dorothy was even named after a niece of his who died as a baby. It bugs me how academia, or some people in academia, took an author trying to give American kids their own fairy tale and turned it into this boring political allegory that feels like a bit of a stretch. Also, if The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is supposedly a political allegory, why does nobody ever go through the 13 sequels and try to find more evidence there? TL;DR: the Gold Standard reading of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not a fact. People should stop saying it is.
By doglake
Since a lot of this book seems to work as metaphor and allegory for late 19th / early 20th century America, do you think money and capitalism matter at all in Oz? If they do, or if they don’t, what do you think is important there compared to the real world? My thought was that Oz seems to put more value on things like bravery and being kind, but those are things people care about in our world too. I honestly can’t remember money coming up much in the book, besides maybe in the Kansas part at the beginning. What do you all think about this classic?
By brisk-porch
I’ve been trying to finally read the original Oz books by L. Frank Baum ever since I watched the 1939 MGM movie (like, how could anyone not?) and then got really obsessed with Wicked in 2024—both the original Maguire novel and the whole musical/movies with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. But I can’t seem to find a hardcover omnibus that collects all 14 of Baum’s Oz books (from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz through Glinda of Oz). I’ve looked everywhere and most stuff I find is either paperback or digital only. I did spot something from Maplewood Books called Oz The Complete Collection Illustrated Edition, but the layout felt off, and only TWWoO has the original illustrations—everything else is digital only, which is annoying. Then I found a hardcover from Revive Classics that apparently has all 14, but a few reviewers mentioned the cover looks AI-generated. I also noticed LFB’s name is listed as “Frank L. Baum” instead of “L. Frank Baum,” and that honestly killed the vibe for me. And I was extra disappointed because they even used AI to “enhance” the 1939 film for the Sphere thing… but I’ll stop myself there. If anyone knows a hardcover omnibus that actually collects all 14 Baum Oz books (and isn’t weird/AI-y), can you point me to it? Thanks!
By WildHeron1980
This is one of those stories that really works for basically anyone, kids and adults. Dorothy gets swept up in a cyclone in Kansas, ends up in this weird magical place, and then has to deal with all kinds of strange characters like witches, flying monkeys, and talking animals. What I like is that she doesn’t just wander around alone—she meets the scarecrow, the tin woodsman, and the lion, and each one is looking for something. They all end up heading to the Emerald City to find the wizard and try to get their wishes sorted out. The whole trip is full of dangers and surprises, and when they finally meet Oz it turns into something even more interesting than I expected. There’s also people who argue the book isn’t only fantasy, that it’s really about stuff like confidence and figuring out what you already have inside you. That idea sounds believable, since they’re basically “seeking” things they can already do—they just have to realize it. But I’ve also seen the opposite take that it’s some kind of political allegory about society and class, and I’m not sure how strong that argument is. Either way, I’d say it’s still best read just as a great story. It’s the kind of classic that’s easy to enjoy again and again, and somehow it keeps feeling fun even after multiple readings.
By cloudyAcorn
I came across something online claiming that Wicked is the “real” story of Oz and that the Wizard of Oz is basically propaganda, and I just felt like that was way too disrespectful to L. Frank Baum and everything he created. It also feels like it basically took his characters and then kind of wiped out a lot of the personality and characterization he wrote. Has any original creator—playwright/director/author—ever really shown love to Baum? I don’t know, it just bugs me. And honestly, the movie made my whole “fanfic always messes with the original creator’s vision” feeling feel even more true.
By restless_garden68
They’re kind of completely unhinged too. I reread a bunch of them recently and… wow. There’s one where Dorothy and the others run into some society made out of living wood or whatever, and they’re basically like “fine, we’re done” and burn the whole place down. Not even exaggerating, it feels like genocide just because they don’t want to wait a little longer. And there’s another story where a kid is taken while he’s just outside playing and he doesn’t see his family again for years. Also the whole Princess Ozma whole girl/boy/girl situation is pretty messed up. All that said, I’d still say it’s worth reading.
By writesharbor
Back when we were kids in the mid-1950s, my sister and I were completely obsessed with the OZ books. Then in 2018 my sister died. I was there while her husband was going through all of her stuff—trying to figure out what to keep, what to donate, and what to toss. Honestly, that’s just brutal. I was on the computer when he asked me, “Do you want any of these books?” I said, “What are they?” He named a bunch of titles that sounded like her usual stuff (yoga, clinical social work, restaurants in Rome, etc.). Then he started going through the OZ set in order and I was like… “Wait, what?” Turns out she’d put together all 14 OZ books over the years. Except for two, they were signed first editions, and they had letters showing where they came from. When I told him what those books meant to her, he just fell apart. We agreed he’d keep them for now. He’s moving into a memory unit for Alzheimer’s patients, and the books will have a spot in my office. I keep thinking I’ll end up reading them again.
By atlas_stone
I remember there being this billion-dollar movie called Wicked, and it was based on The Wizard of Oz or something like that.
By glimmerGarden
I’m probably not going to pick up the next ones, but wow—did people really stop writing kid books like this? If you’re curious, it feels like Frank Baum made this for children on purpose. Like, it’s trying really hard to not drag the kids into all the gloomy stuff. So when Dorothy ends up causing some really grim things, or when the Tin Woodsman is cutting up wolves, it’s played more like “yay, we’re getting to the next part,” not as this heavy, lingering thing. The story just keeps moving and doesn’t sit there and stare at what just happened. That’s also what I noticed about the pacing. I kept telling myself “okay, it’s for kids,” because in a couple paragraphs they’re sleeping, then they’re out adventuring, then they’re eating, and then suddenly they’ve arrived somewhere. I don’t really see this kind of style anymore. Maybe because I don’t read a lot of children’s books? I don’t know. I did like the message though. That idea that you’ve already got what you need inside you the whole time is honestly pretty solid, even for adults. No clue what I expected from this book, but it definitely wasn’t what I got. It was interesting, and I’m glad I read it… I just don’t think I could handle another full set of like ten of the same thing.
By hill-mountain8664
Honestly, it feels like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is probably the best guess for America’s “favorite” fairy tale. It’s from 1900, and Dorothy gets dropped into this fantasy world that kind of lines up with big American themes—figuring things out for yourself, reinventing who you are, chasing bigger horizons. She makes friends, deals with a witch, and ends up finding her own confidence, but also just wanting to get back home. It seems like Oz was empowering for her, and I guess for Baum and a lot of readers too, even if some of his other stuff had pretty twisted ideas. What keeps it alive today, though, isn’t really the original book so much as all the adaptations. People mostly remember it through the movies, especially that 1939 Judy Garland musical with “Over the Rainbow,” and the whole yellow brick road look. And since the 1956 version basically opened the door for new versions that weren’t officially part of the original lineup, everyone after that just kept riffing on the same images and turning out their own Oz stories.
By smallViolet
Hey! I first grabbed Wicked when I was a teenager because I got into the musical, but it totally went over my head and I never finished it. I decided to try again recently and I actually really liked it. Now I’m trying to read more of the series, but I thought it might help to read the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in between Wicked and Son of a Witch, just so I’d have a better feel for where all of Wicked’s stuff is coming from. I’m almost done with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and… wow, I didn’t enjoy it much. The writing feels really plain and straightforward, and even though it’s quick, it didn’t really do anything for me. I did like spotting the connections to Wicked, but that was pretty much it. So I’m kind of wondering—does it make sense to keep reading more of L. Frank Baum after this? Are there other good connections I’d want to look for? And does the writing get more interesting or more complex later, or is it pretty much the same the whole way through? I know everyone’s focused on the movie right now, but I’d still love any thoughts or advice from people who’ve read the books and the musical stuff. Thanks!