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maryloulynninmi's review against another edition
5.0
Very enjoyable
I very much enjoyed revisiting Oz in these classic stories. Dorothy and her friends are still delightful. I am glad they included the illustrations from the first book.
I very much enjoyed revisiting Oz in these classic stories. Dorothy and her friends are still delightful. I am glad they included the illustrations from the first book.
pawspagesandpurrs's review against another edition
Each book has gotten an individual rating and review. I will calculate the rating and add an approximate here at some point.
lipsandpalms's review against another edition
3.0
After the first two stories, I can't get into it. It seems to be a cash grab for this universe that started strong enough to inspire millions but fizzled out afterwards. I'm sure they're lovely stories for kids but I was hoping for something more substantive after hearing how dark these can get.
ladyjedi's review against another edition
4.0
I love fairy tales, and The Wizard of Oz is one of the most known due to the popularity of the 1939 film with Judy Garland. What most people do not know or realize is that L. Frank Baum wrote 14 books in total all set in the wonderful land of Oz. A few other writers including Baum's great grandson, have also written books about the many varied characters in Oz, continuing the series. This collection, which is free on Amazon Kindle, contains the 14 books written by Baum, and the first book written by Ruth Plumly Thompson, the first writer to continue the Oz series.
I gave the book 4/5 stars, because it included the 15th book "The Royal Book of Oz" by Thompson. I thought Thompson, inn trying to imitate Baum's style, made the book a bit heavier, and at times tiring to read. She should have used her own style.
The 14 books by Baum are an absolute delight of a fairy tale. Easy to read, lovely strange characters, tales that every child will love and adore. (and that includes big children... )
Read these tales to your children, and love Dorothy and the Wizard, the Scarecrow and Scraps, Glinda and the Tin Man, Ozma and Sawhorse, The Glass Cat, Eureka, Toby, The Cowardly Lion,, the Hungry Tiger...
I gave the book 4/5 stars, because it included the 15th book "The Royal Book of Oz" by Thompson. I thought Thompson, inn trying to imitate Baum's style, made the book a bit heavier, and at times tiring to read. She should have used her own style.
The 14 books by Baum are an absolute delight of a fairy tale. Easy to read, lovely strange characters, tales that every child will love and adore. (and that includes big children... )
Read these tales to your children, and love Dorothy and the Wizard, the Scarecrow and Scraps, Glinda and the Tin Man, Ozma and Sawhorse, The Glass Cat, Eureka, Toby, The Cowardly Lion,, the Hungry Tiger...
abigcoffeedragon's review against another edition
3.0
The goal - to read the entire series.
The result - stopping after 5 books in.
Overall, this is the same story told over and over again. It never gets better though.
The result - stopping after 5 books in.
Overall, this is the same story told over and over again. It never gets better though.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
And thus I finish reading the original series of Oz. There were tons of books written later by other people but I figure this is quite enough. It took me two years reading from the local library from pretty amazing reprint versions with the original artwork. And it was worth reading and I wish I had read it earlier. And I would have read it to my kids. But on its own, separate from its obvious impact on the world, this series did not hold up to time and was generally unimpressive. There was too much repetition and not enough interesting plot. The characters were imaginative and silly and endlessly weird though, which is definitely the series' strength. 3.5 of 5.
astronomer's review against another edition
2.0
L Frank Baum wrote 14 Oz books, and I've read 6 of them.
The first one, despite all its shortcomings is by far the best.
I read them in the order they were written in. When I was on the second one, I suspected that the whole series was going to be a repetition of the original, and two chapters into the third one I was sure.
I'm ashamed to admit I carried on reading the rest because of my pig-headed author centricism.
These 6 are the only ones available as audio books from my libraries, so I'm joyously not reading the other 8. Oh frabjuous day, I said to myself when I was done with the last one.
In the preface to these sequels, the author attributes the story to his fans who "insisted" on more Oz stories. He also claims that he incorporated several of their ideas into these stories.
The Oz series is a perfect example of just why an author should not do that.
The first one was original, and that was the best thing about it. It had a number of inconsistencies however. Like the Tin Woodman who cries when a flower is plucked, but is happy to kill obviously more intelligent life forms like wolves and bees.
Everyone except Dorothy is already in possession of whatever it is they're seeking from the Wizard.
In my opinion, Dorothy was fully aware of this but kept this to herself and decided a bit of company would serve her well. Or they all knew, but wouldn't wish to admit it for fear others would challenge them on that point.
Tin doesn't rust. Iron does. Poppy flowers don't make people sleep.
However since the most general laws of physics have been violated in multiple ways during this, these are just petty and insignificant. (Here, general does not mean more or less true, it means absolutely true, in all generality)
Though I have only read 6 of 14 books, it is my theory that all books in this series can be condensed into the following:
quite against his/her intentions visits the land of being taken there by accompanied by . The protagonist wants to see so that they can . They take along who doesn't sleep and doesn't get tired or hungry.
They meet a mechanical man() who cannot sleep and who can't be hurt, cant get hungry or tired.
They are accompanied by a creature(lion/woggle bug/tiger/Jim/Button Bright/the Woozy and Bungle) who is dealing with a psychological problem -
They thwart
Only the protagonist gets what they were seeking.
The rest of them stay in Oz and they claim to be happy about it
Even some of the dialogue is repetitive :-(
This gets 2 stars only because of the first book, which was at least original
The first one, despite all its shortcomings is by far the best.
I read them in the order they were written in. When I was on the second one, I suspected that the whole series was going to be a repetition of the original, and two chapters into the third one I was sure.
I'm ashamed to admit I carried on reading the rest because of my pig-headed author centricism.
These 6 are the only ones available as audio books from my libraries, so I'm joyously not reading the other 8. Oh frabjuous day, I said to myself when I was done with the last one.
In the preface to these sequels, the author attributes the story to his fans who "insisted" on more Oz stories. He also claims that he incorporated several of their ideas into these stories.
The Oz series is a perfect example of just why an author should not do that.
The first one was original, and that was the best thing about it. It had a number of inconsistencies however. Like the Tin Woodman who cries when a flower is plucked, but is happy to kill obviously more intelligent life forms like wolves and bees.
Everyone except Dorothy is already in possession of whatever it is they're seeking from the Wizard.
In my opinion, Dorothy was fully aware of this but kept this to herself and decided a bit of company would serve her well. Or they all knew, but wouldn't wish to admit it for fear others would challenge them on that point.
Tin doesn't rust. Iron does. Poppy flowers don't make people sleep.
However since the most general laws of physics have been violated in multiple ways during this, these are just petty and insignificant. (Here, general does not mean more or less true, it means absolutely true, in all generality)
Though I have only read 6 of 14 books, it is my theory that all books in this series can be condensed into the following:
They meet a mechanical man(
They are accompanied by a creature(lion/woggle bug/tiger/Jim/Button Bright/the Woozy and Bungle) who is dealing with a psychological problem -
They thwart
Only the protagonist gets what they were seeking.
The rest of them stay in Oz and they claim to be happy about it
Even some of the dialogue is repetitive :-(
This gets 2 stars only because of the first book, which was at least original
rcsreads's review against another edition
4.0
We get new characters and new parts of Oz in the first two but there's a lot of reused plots and the Patchwork Girl ends very abruptly with a quick fix that makes most of the story a pointless waste of time!
The Scarecrow of Oz is actually really good though.
I'm not sure why it's named after Scarecrow because he doesn't show up till halfway through!
It mainly follows Trot and Cap`n Bill who get sucked down a whirlpool and go on a journey with an Ork (weird, featherless, helicopter bird things). Hardly anyone tries to kill them and they help a princess and a gardeners boy to their happy ending.
Good female role models galore!
The Scarecrow of Oz is actually really good though.
I'm not sure why it's named after Scarecrow because he doesn't show up till halfway through!
It mainly follows Trot and Cap`n Bill who get sucked down a whirlpool and go on a journey with an Ork (weird, featherless, helicopter bird things). Hardly anyone tries to kill them and they help a princess and a gardeners boy to their happy ending.
Good female role models galore!