katiehwrites 's review for:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

3.0

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I did this as a read-aloud with my kids, and I think this is one of those rare books that falls into the category of 'the film was better'. In fairess, I think some of my bugbears actually lie with the film version: the magical slippers (outrageously pictured on the cover of my edition in bright red) are silver in the book, not ruby; there's no mention whatsoever about the Wicked Witch of the West being green. And that golden cap... a bit of an easy plot device that I'm glad never made it into the film. Anyway, in its own right, this book was fun, and there was adventure and humour and a whole host of imaginative characters - those hammer heads! The plot was simple: this happens, then this, then this, with little followthrough on events. That said, my kids loved it, and it was satisfying to see the main characters grow. It was even more satisfying to get to the end and find that, in the book, it doesn't all turn out to be a dream!
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