Der Zauberer von Oz (1900)

**2.5 Stars For having loved the movie so much, I was disappointed when reading this book. There is so little detail when describing the world and the characters that I had a hard time connecting with anything at all in this book. There is definitely a Pollyanna feel to this world of OZ, and there are too many clear cut "good" and "evil" situations and characters. Nothing is clearly black and white in our world and it would have been nice to see the situation and characters fleshed out a little more to show the complexity that the real world clearly contains. I will always love L. Frank Baum for creating such a wonderful world of OZ, but I would have loved more from the original story in terms of plot and character complexity. ( )

The story chronicles the adventures of a young girl named Dorothy Gale in the Land of Oz, after being swept away from her Kansas farm home in a cyclone.

I started watching the new show Emerald City the other day and thought I'd read this again. I haven't read it since college. My history teacher explained the meaning behind everything in great detail about the bimetallic standard, William Jennings Bryan, factory workers, farmers, etc. etc. etc. Every character, place and thing stood for something. I don't remember a lot of it, and I had even forgotten some of the changes from the book to the movie. I actually listened to the audiobook this time. Anne Hathaway is the narrator, and she does a great job. I enjoyed it, and I'm planning to continue the Oz book series. I've never read the others before. ( )

Really different from movie

After a rather heated vote, my APK class chose this as their November chapter book. I know most of them picked it because of the little bit of the story they knew, such as the fact that a tornado picks up Dorothy, but nevertheless it won against some stiff competition. I was a little worried it would be a little too dark for them at times, such as the story of how the Tin Woodsman became tin, but they sunk right into it. If the only thing they remember from this year with me is this story, I think I’m doing a fairly decent job as a teacher. They picked up on parts of the story that many of us probably skip over, like the kalidahs, and brought them to life. I even caught them playing a version of freeze tag on the playground but with the freezer being the wicked witch trying to stop Dorothy and her friends. As much as I absolutely love the film, the first book in the series is far superior (which is not surprising at all). I love this story as an adult, reader and I loved seeing how my group of learners really enjoyed the story and talked about it at home with their parents and siblings and even caught on to the lessons like how sometimes we are a lot braver than we think and how the Wizard was really “not nice” for lying and saying he could help but only if they killed the witch for him. Great story that I think everyone, adults and children, should take the time to read. ( )