Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by cartoonmicah
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
4.0
As kids, my brother and I looked forward with anticipation to library day each week. We were eager readers of all the chapter book series of the 90's and fans of comic strips, checking out and swapping copies of Tintin and Garfield and Calvin And Hobbes. As we got older, our tastes diverged slightly. He was always the Roald Dahl guy and the Oz guy. He read a large number of the Oz books and told me about them in bits and pieces. Now, I’m finally getting around to starting them for myself.
Oz is the light sort of children's fiction, replete with nonsense and non-sequitur in all the best and most confident ways. Much of it feels symbolic in the way a dream is symbolic, with some sense of meaning that is not quite straightforward. It doesn't seem to mind if nothing makes sense, but it manages to verge on philosophical depth at times before wandering back into lighter territory. While the changes made for the film are understandable, the attempt to streamline and perhaps explain elements does not improve upon the original. The world of Oz and its inhabitants are not the most cohesive in the world, but that is what makes the magic of it remarkable.
Oz is the light sort of children's fiction, replete with nonsense and non-sequitur in all the best and most confident ways. Much of it feels symbolic in the way a dream is symbolic, with some sense of meaning that is not quite straightforward. It doesn't seem to mind if nothing makes sense, but it manages to verge on philosophical depth at times before wandering back into lighter territory. While the changes made for the film are understandable, the attempt to streamline and perhaps explain elements does not improve upon the original. The world of Oz and its inhabitants are not the most cohesive in the world, but that is what makes the magic of it remarkable.