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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies, and when he realized I'd never read the book, my husband got me a hardcopy of the illustrated first edition as a gift.
Before the story even begins, there is an introduction written by the author that explains why the story was written, and in part it reads, "...for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale...Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to be a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out."
That being said, there's a ton of weird, and scary stuff in this story! At it's core it's the story we know and love from the film, but there are a lot of additional characters and details that have been changed, rearranged or cut out completely. The filmmakers did a fantastic job of taking the most important parts of the book and bringing them to life in creating a story with a better plot, details and pacing.
If you've ever seen Return to Oz, the 1985 film staring Fairuza Balk, that is much more accurate to the vibe of this book. Unhinged and intriguing.
One of the things I was really disappointed with was the physical book itself. This is a re-print of the illustrated first edition, but the illustrations are clearly scanned and enlarged from the original formats, but done so poorly. Many images are stretched to fit the page and are pixelated. Additionally, the layout of some pages makes no sense, with images covering the text so much that the words are difficult to read. I would've much rather have full pages of complete text, and then pages of properly sized illustrations rather than trying to incorporate the illustrations throughout.
I know this is the first in a series of 14 books, but I don't think I'm invested enough to continue. This series leans more into the genre of fantasy than fairy tale, which is not my favorite.
I'd recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the Wizard of Oz film, I think they'd be surprised to compare and contrast the two. I wouldn't recommend this for small children, but middle school and up.
Before the story even begins, there is an introduction written by the author that explains why the story was written, and in part it reads, "...for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale...Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to be a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out."
That being said, there's a ton of weird, and scary stuff in this story! At it's core it's the story we know and love from the film, but there are a lot of additional characters and details that have been changed, rearranged or cut out completely. The filmmakers did a fantastic job of taking the most important parts of the book and bringing them to life in creating a story with a better plot, details and pacing.
If you've ever seen Return to Oz, the 1985 film staring Fairuza Balk, that is much more accurate to the vibe of this book. Unhinged and intriguing.
One of the things I was really disappointed with was the physical book itself. This is a re-print of the illustrated first edition, but the illustrations are clearly scanned and enlarged from the original formats, but done so poorly. Many images are stretched to fit the page and are pixelated. Additionally, the layout of some pages makes no sense, with images covering the text so much that the words are difficult to read. I would've much rather have full pages of complete text, and then pages of properly sized illustrations rather than trying to incorporate the illustrations throughout.
I know this is the first in a series of 14 books, but I don't think I'm invested enough to continue. This series leans more into the genre of fantasy than fairy tale, which is not my favorite.
I'd recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the Wizard of Oz film, I think they'd be surprised to compare and contrast the two. I wouldn't recommend this for small children, but middle school and up.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Charles Santore's illustrations were charming. There's something about watercolor that feels more whimsical. It's perfect for fairytales.
The abridged text made for a quick, fun read.
The abridged text made for a quick, fun read.
adventurous
lighthearted
Such a whimsically written classic and story. I thought this would be boring but it was really cute and I had a fun time reading it. I enjoyed this more than the original film. So much more going on in the book and I liked that, it kept me engaged.
I think I shouldn't have been comparing this so much to the movie since it's honestly very very different. This feels closer to the Wicked book than the wizard of oz movie, so it makes me appreciate the wicked book a bit more than before. I think it was pretty slow and the wicked witch is only in one chapter which was weird. Overall I understand this is more of a children's book maybe young adult but it just didn't feel as magical as the movie made it.
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I watched The Wizard of Oz a few years ago and vowed to never read the book because the movie was so...ahem...weird and creepy. The only reasons I began listening to the audiobook this week was to find out why this is filed as a classic and to pass time as I worked on a project.
To start, it was an okay novel. Weird but okay. Maybe I would have liked it more if Anne Hathaway weren't so incompetent at narrating characters' voices.
...
I thought I had more to rant about but I guess not...
To start, it was an okay novel. Weird but okay. Maybe I would have liked it more if Anne Hathaway weren't so incompetent at narrating characters' voices.
...
I thought I had more to rant about but I guess not...