The Wizard of Oz

Description

This enchanting tale has captivated generations of children and adults alike. 'The road to the City of Emeralds is paved with yellow brick' When a tornado crashes through Kansas City, Dorothy and her dog Toto are whisked far away, over the rainbow, to a strange land called Oz. How will they ever get home? And what is at the end of the yellow brick road? Plucky Dorothy and Toto embark on a magical adventure to search for the Wizard of Oz and along the way encounter new friends- the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion. Includes exclusive material- In the Backstory you can take the quiz and find out how much you really know about The Wizard of Oz! Vintage Children's Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

L. Frank Baum was born in New York in 1856. The Wizard of Oz was based on a story he used to tell his own children. It was published in 1900 and became an international bestseller. The Wizard of Oz was made into a stage play in 1902 and a film starring Judy Garland in 1939. Baum wrote 12 more Oz novels and six short stories. After his death in 1919, his publishers carried on producing Oz stories and didn't stop until 1963!

Like Robin Hood, Alice or Winnie the Pooh, Baum's inventions - the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Woodman, the Wizard and the Wicked Witch of the West, as well as Dorothy and her dog Toto - have become the mythological furniture of our children's minds, and of our own and our parents... Funny and inventive -- Marina Warner * Guardian * The tales of Aesop and other fabulists...will never pass entirely away, but a welcome place remains and will easily be found for such stories as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz * New York Times * Baum created a truly extraordinary world, a real world...and filled it with amazing things -- Dinitia Smith [It] has worked its way into the national psyche as a fable of eternal hope in which things are not always as fearsome as they seem * New York Times * Baum dared to offer delight without instruction * Michael Patrick Hearn *