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    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

    Written by L. Frank Baum

    Narrated by Liza Ross

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    This great children’s classic, written in 1900 and immortalised in the Judy Garland film, retains its charm in this reading by Liza Ross. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion are all here in technicolour – with some of the music that made the film unforgettable.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateFeb 1, 2001
    ISBN9789629543815
    Author

    L. Frank Baum

    Lyman Frank Baum (1856–1919) was an American children’s book author, best known for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and several other works (55 novels in total, plus four "lost" novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings).

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    Reviews for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

    4/5

    4,019 ratings220 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I made the mistake of growing up watching the film and not reading the book until adulthood. They are VERY different. This novel is a lot more graphic and dark. Not at all like the yellow brick road we skipped down with Judy Garland.
    • 5/5
      This book would be good to use when talking about fantasy. I think students will like this because of the adventure the main character goes on.
    • 5/5
      I really loved this little book. It's very simplistically written, but it's very wholesome and funny. There are a fair few differences between the book and the 1939 adaptation, so it was enjoyable reading it as I didn't know everything that happened.

      The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything. “You people with hearts,' he said once, 'have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful.”

      This was an important line to me. It made me consider how we might take our beliefs for granted. If we always believe we are right, we simply trust what we are doing. Whereas, the Tin Woodman without a heart, doesn't trust himself to be good, so he is always purposeful with his actions. And I believe this can pertain to many areas of life.

      “It is such an uncomfortable feeling to know one is a fool.”
    • 5/5
      This book is the kind of book you could simply start reading again right after you've finished.
    • 3/5
      A lot of the movie was very true to the story, but there was quite a bit that was left out. The gist was there though.
    • 4/5
      I began reading this version of The Wizard of Oz to my youngest daughter, who is six years old, thinking that it may frighten her a bit, but in reality, this version was beautifully done and far less frightening than the movie version of this classic. In it, the characters are almost all seen as friendly and not at all intimidating or frightening. The residents of the land that Dorothy travels to on her way to Oz are small, cheerful characters who welcome Dorothy with open arms. When Dorothy finally reaches Oz, she is very well received, treated almost like a princess, and comes face to face with the Great Oz, who quickly shows himself to be just an ordinary man. This version would be wonderful to use as a read aloud or to the young but independent reader as an introduction to this classic tale, and also encourages using one's imagination and the themes of friendship, confidence in one's strengths, pursuing one's dreams, and the triumph of good over evil.
    • 3/5
      I made the mistake of growing up watching the film and not reading the book until adulthood. They are VERY different. This novel is a lot more graphic and dark. Not at all like the yellow brick road we skipped down with Judy Garland.
    • 4/5
      It was fun to read this in French, though I found the illustrations somewhat off-putting. (I can't even find the proper adjective to describe them -- my wife suggests the word triangular, though we agree it doesn't quite capture the bizarreness.) I also thought asking the reader to wear green-tinted glasses during the City of Oz sections was a little much. Still a good way to practice my French.
    • 3/5
      A children’s novel written by L. Frank Baum is more familiar to me as the movie so it was one time where the book didn’t feel right compared to the movie. It was first made into film in 1939. We all know the story. Dorothy, a young girl, living with her aunt and uncle in Kansas is swept away in a tornado and finds herself in a land populated by witches, north, south, east and west and all sorts of different characters and animals. The author was an US born author. He was sheltered, shy and had a heart problem. He spent time with imaginary friends and reading books. He married a ‘women’s rights’ person and was considered a progressive thinking. His book has a female hero. The movie does follow the book fairly well. The shoes were silver and not red. There is considerable violence with the woodman chopping heads off here and there but unlike the movie I actually was able to finish the book. The movie was always too scary. I was born in the same town as Judy Garland and she played Dorothy of course, so that’s my claim to fame.
    • 4/5
      I found it difficult to read this without the ghosts of the MGM musical and Gregory Maguire's [book: Wicked] and [book: Son of a Witch] lurking over my shoulder.Definitely liked it more than the musical -- no offense to Judy Garland. Dorothy's comrades are much more interesting in the original, especially little Toto.***August 2008 selection of the GB Book Club.***
    • 5/5
      Oh my gosh! I loved this movie as a kid and I loved the book as a child too, both for different reasons. Reading this book again as an adult, it brought back wonderful memories of my Grandma and I reading this together when I was a child. How could any reader, young or old, not like this book?! This wonderful classic takes the reader on a wonderful journey to far away lands full of magic and wonder. With a wonderful plot and such classically wonderful characters this is an instant love for any reader. The wonder of the plot of being swept away to a far away land and trying to find a way home is great for the imagination. The characters only add to that love and wonder. With characters like Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, Dorothy, Toto, the witches (good and bad), and the wizard there is a character for each and every reader to love and to dislike. The pictures are perfect in this book as is the writing. It's a book so fantastic and magical any reader gets lost in the pages and before they know it, the end of the book is upon them. A great book to create great memories with!!5/5 Stars!!
    • 5/5
      Author L Frank BaumTitle The Wizard of OzIllustrator Charles SantureDate SterlingPages 96Short Summary: This book is about Dorothy who has a dog named Todo. She lives in a little house with her grandma I believe. She has a dream because there was a bad tornado that blew her house up in the air and Dorothy hit her head and became unconscious and was asleep for awhile and had this dream, and the whole book is her dream basically. Her dream is she goes to this place that has a yellow brock road and a fairy godmother and umpaloompas. She doesn't know where she is all she knows is she isn't in Kansas anymore she wanted to know how to get home and the godmother tells her to just follow the yellow brick road and along the way she meets tin man, lion, and scarecrow which they all becomes Dorothy's friends They all go on an adventure and they also come across the mean witch and then also a good witch, you will just have to read the book to see what kind of adventures these characters have!Tags or subject headings would be fantasy and imaginary, not real.My Response: I love love this book and I was even more excited when the movie came out. I read this book over and over until the movie came out then I watched the movie all the time when I got ahold of that. I also loved all the songs in this book/movie. This book was basically like my whole childhood!
    • 5/5
      The Wizard of Oz, popular abbreviation for the originally titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum originally published in 1900. The story follows the adventures of a girl named Dorothy in the Land of Oz. Thanks in part to the 1939 movie based on the book, it has become entrenched in American popular culture and led to Baum writing thirteen more Oz books.
    • 3/5
      Although I've seen the 1939 film and more recent films, I had no idea what to expect. I remember looking at all of the L. Frank Baum books at the library, but never picked one up.

      I shouldn't be surprised by the darkness in the books, but coming from contemporary children's stories, I seem to have coddled my own understanding of the frankness and abrupt nature that "evil" is dealt with at the turn of the century.

      I enjoyed the book, probably more so because I have so many other versions to compare it to. I have yet to read Wicked, but I prefer this story to the other adaptations.
    • 5/5
      This is a fantastic children’s book that follows Dorothy and friends through Oz. Although, I never read it as a child (I wish I had shared this with my daughter), I enjoyed it. It is nothing like the classic motion picture (let alone who knows what the new Disney movie has in store). If one is a fan of the film, they may be disappointed by the differences. Haven’t seen the film in its entirety in years, I was able to enjoy the book for what it was. The illustrations by Michael Sieben were, at first, a little disturbing but adds some pizzazz to the story. I see that Sieben is somewhat popular and his illustrations remind me of the wood block prints we used to do in school.
    • 4/5
      I really loved this book. It's a classic. Although, at times, I felt the movie was probably a bit better, but still a must-read. I thought the book was much more childlike than the movie and was much more in the perspective of a child.
    • 3/5
      Maybe it was because I never read the book when I was young, or maybe I simply don't have an innate appreciation for fantasy literature, but this book--like the movie--is just weird to me. My girls (whom I read the book aloud to) thought that it was pretty good; they have yet to see the movie. All that said, I'm glad to have read it--simply because it makes me feel more culturally literate. : )
    • 3/5
      Rating is closer to 3.5 stars. I have parts about this I loved and parts that bothered me so my thoughts a left a jumbled mess. First off, if you do not know this story, go learn about it. Everyone should know the Wizard of Oz and most of us do. Although I think many of us are more familiar with the movie. The story concept is just great and one I have always loved and all that credit goes to the author.

      Now, I must admit I like the movie more than the book. While the basic story is great and Dorothy being a little girl does put a more child-like quality of the book there is a lot of violence in this story. The Tin Man's story is both sad and horrifying and might be a bit much for a young child to handle. And the neck breaking, limb lopping as they make their way across Oz was harsh. While it is not very graphic in description it is still easy to visualize. So while the story is written in a style for young children, about half the content is on the mature side.

      This is a short story being between 110-140 pages (depending on the pictures of various editions). The chapters are short and the pace is fast. A lot happens in that time. It is still a fantastical adventure and in some ways getting the back story of the characters added to it's enrichment.

      There are quite a few differences from the movie to the book. From the house Dorothy green up in, the Ruby vs silver slippers, the Winged Monkeys, The Emerald City, etc. It was very interesting to see and discover the differences. One thing that really jumped out at me was how each character acted versus what they kept saying they wanted from the Wizard. Amusing aspect to the story, making it all the more endearing.


      Overall enjoyable. I am curious to continue the series yet there is no feeling of needing to rush to the next book. It is a series to read at leisure. I advise caution for young children for this book. If a movie copied the details of the book, it would not be rated G. So just a heads up, I advise you to read it before your child does if allowing them to read this at a young age.
    • 4/5
      Dorothy lives in Kansas,USA.But one day a cyclone blows her house to a country called Oz.There were Dorothy and her dog in it.
    • 3/5
      Having gotten caught up in a cyclone, Dorothy's house whirls her away to the Land of Oz. Here she makes friends with a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodman, and a Cowardly Lion who are all missing something in their life. The group of newly met friends have many adventures as they travel to the Emerald City to see the wizard who they hope will grant all their wishes.It is fun to read this book as an adult after having seen the movie numerous times. The story is generally the same, but is a bit more violent. Although the story line is very interesting, I found the language rather unexciting. Concept/classroom connection: Read the book and compare/contrast it to the well-loved film.
    • 4/5
      Warning: this review may spoil the ending of the book for you. Then again, you've probably already seen the movie, haven't you?"The (Wonderful) Wizard of Oz" is in fact a great deal unlike the 1939 film. There are far more characters in Oz, and far less time is spent on the farm in Kansas. I was not surprised to read in the Puffin edition's supplementary material at the end of the book that it was originally banned because its simplistic writing style did not make it seem like quality children's literature. Cornelia Funke states in her introduction to this edition that readers are luckier if they get to make the journey through the book as a child, and I would concur. As an adult, I found it a hard slog to get interested in the book until halfway through, when the characters depart from the Emerald City to complete their task. The chapters are short, the wording is not very descriptive beyond reference to lots of different colours and the way clothing looks, and the action in much of the book seems not to have much storytelling purpose other than to delay the ending a little bit longer. The book reads like a convoluted series of Grimms' fairy tales where the moral is delayed almost entirely to the end, in spite of a few hints throughout here and there. Reference to this moral is not subtle, either. Baum apparently loved to tell children stories, and his novel reads much like a story that he was spinning off stream-of-consciousness, with back-stories thrown in for additional characters here and there just to keep the audience entertained for a wee bit longer. Overall, I felt that the story lacked the sophisticated emotional arcs of tales like "Charlotte's Web" or the linguistic skill of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." I have to admit, though, that I was won over by the ending, for in the movie, it never satisfied me that Dorothy had the power to go home all along, but "had to find out for herself." In the book, it is more clear that if Dorothy had never come to Oz, the Scarecrow would never have got his brains, the Tin Man would never have got his heart, and the Cowardly Lion would never have got his courage, and thus her trials served a purpose. That's a moral that I can get behind; I just wish it had been as wonderful to get to the end of the literary yellow brick road as it was to reach the end of the celluloid one.
    • 4/5
      I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, especially in those subtle pieces that the movie didn't/couldn't hold:

      "...for when he [The Scarecrow] found himself alone in his room he stood stupidly in one spot, just within the doorway, to wait till morning. It would not rest him to lie down, and he could not close his eyes; so he remained all night staring at a little spider which was weaving its web in a corner of the room, just as if it were not one of the most wonderful rooms in the world."

      Didn't expect that I would be sucked into reading the series, but I've already downloaded the second book.

      I love the somewhat haphazard feeling of the book; the fact that the wicked witch is not such a central character as in the movie; and the clever prose.

    • 4/5
      Remarkably, I never read the Oz books as a kid. Weird, I know, but somehow I never went there. (And truly, this is a weird thing. I read *everything*. Maybe The Wiz was too firmly engrained in my psyche as a movie to register that it was a book first? Or was it a shying away from some aspects of it which seemed too childish for me even as a child? Or was it simply that I never had a copy in the house and the library had much shinier and cooler books to draw my attention? No idea.) This was a freebie on Audible, bless their hearts, and it seemed like time.Oh well.Whether aspects of the story might have been too childish for me once upon a time, aspects of the storytelling certainly were listening to this. The silly voices Anne Hathaway provided became a little much at times; there is only so much time I am willing to spend listening to certain types of cartoony voices. And I confess, being used to the relative conciseness of the MGM version, I became impatient with the rather wandering way in which the actual story was spun out. I wonder if I would have liked this as a child. I wouldn't have been trying so hard to apply logic to it then, though I would still have been comparing it to the movie…
    • 4/5
      Poor Frank Baum---so often the casual reader comes upon his book after viewing the best movie adaptation ever. The book is a bit different from the film, most notably in the ending, which is far superior to the movie's slick closing.There is little backstory here; instead we are transported almost immediately to the land of Oz. "Wizard" is not nearly as dated as some books from the same era; the fantasy holds up well, we meet some funny characteres and Baum presents a painless moral lesson quickly seen by adults but not quite so quickly by children. A good read-aloud for second or third graders; a good read-alone for fourth or fifth gradeers.
    • 4/5
      Classic work in which a young girl explores a strange land, seeking a way to get home. The original book has been largely superseded by the 1939 film in the public consciousness (to the point that this reprinting, like most, drops the full title, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"), but is well worth reading in the original. Dorothy is much tougher and braver in the original than the squealy Judy Garland portrayal, and the work is a good beginning to the lesser-known later Oz books, which are less world-building and more undirected explosions of imagination. Unfortunately the pacing suffers a little from the long, anticlimactic journey to Glinda's in the last half of the book, a reminder that sometimes the books were less about the plot and more about just being odd travelogues... but that's the fun part of any journey, after all! (Interestingly, despite being described in the author's introduction as "a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out", the book contains a surprising amount of beheadings. Cultural shift?)
    • 4/5
      This book is such a great version of the classic by L. Frank Baum.The story is condensed but is done so in a way that simply makes it more manageable for children.The shortened version is great with the added pictures as drawn by Charles Santore. This added element of fantastic drawings (interpreted by Charles from the original classic) provides reluctant readers with more incentive to read through this story.I recommend avoiding the expectation that this book will follow the movie version. There are detailed scenes drawn from the original book that were not featured in the movie which may disappoint some readers.Notable examples would be in the scene where the tin woodsman is said to have used his axe to kill 40 wolves and the scarecrow snapped the necks of 40 crows which were all sent by the wicked witch.This book would be suitable for children aged 8-12. It is heavily text-based but is broken up by wonderful illustrations.
    • 4/5
      This is such a charming and magical fairy tale. I'm glad I re-read it. I first read this sometime in elementary school and now, twenty or so years later, I didn't remember it that well. I've seen the movie many times in childhood and later, and I am a fan of Gregory Maguire's Wicked both the book and musical, so when I saw the first three of Baum's classic Oz novels in the used book store I grabbed them up quickly.I remember that, as a child I was actually creeped out by the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman(!) Especially the Woodman because he cut his own arms and legs off. That's a hardcore mental image to process when you're a kid. Now of course I just find it all very charming and sweet. I am also charmed by the way that the Scarecrow wants brains, the Woodman wants a heart and the Lion wants courage, yet they repeatedly prove by their actions that they each have the thing they think they lack. I don't remember if I quite got that as a child, but it made me smile the whole time I was reading it now. Like, aw, what sweethearts they all are!The "Marvelous Land of Oz" itself is magnificently detailed and magical. The map at the front, illustrating the different countries, makes this seem more like an epic fantasy series than a children's series (and indeed, the Del Rey versions that I'm reading are made up to look more like an adult fantasy series, complete with quotes by Ray Bradbury, Terry Brooks, Stephen Donaldson and Gore Vidal) you can see how later children's and adult fantasy series were inspired by Baum's creativity. In the end, The Wizard of Oz is a really fun, magical, charming, quirky book. I don't have children, but it seemed like one that would be a lot of fun to read aloud to a child. It makes for a fast, fun read as an adult. I'm glad I picked up the next two in the series, as I never read beyond the first book as a child, but now I'm pretty curious about them - and I'll be happy to take my time exploring the marvelous land of Oz!
    • 3/5
      recommend to children under the age of 10
    • 5/5
      Here it is: the book that started it all. I'm so familiar with the beats of the plot that I haven't read the actual text in, probably, a good twenty years, so coming back to it was illuminating. It's a remarkably straightforward, plain-spoken piece of work; the cyclone hits on page 4 of this first edition reproduction, but it would be the second page in any modern edition with a reduced font size and page margins. The final chapter is just three paragraphs. Baum achieves a lot with very little, and if the story comes over as a more strict morality play than the later Oz books, that's okay. There's a lot of imagination and invention in evidence here, and if you think back to the almost non-existent landscape of children's literature at the turn of the 20th century, it's easy to see why this book made such a big splash. There are a few associations with European fairy tale tropes, but mostly, Baum is having a good time modernizing and turning those preconceptions on their head, and tying them to a fantasized version of the frontier America he knew (something that, for whatever reason, most adaptations seem to miss). Abandoning the landscape and hierarchy of European nations gives Oz its own fantasy-land identity, which Baum continued to refine - but never really bettered - in future volumes. And if his prose is formal and his characterization fairly basic, he makes up for it with sheer visual iconography. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a book that provides the framework for a child's imagination, and the figures it provides are unique and vivid enough that we have, unsurprisingly, absorbed them into our American mythology over the past one hundred years.
    • 3/5
      This lavishly illustrated picture book is an abridged version of the original book, Wizard of Oz, first in the OZ series. The story bears similarities to the popular movie of the same name, but is quite drastically different. Dorothy hitches a ride on a tornado, and flattens a witch beneath her house, but the magic shoes are silver. She lands in the land of the Munchkins and meets a good witch; not Glinda, this one is kindly and elderly and short. The Good Witch of the North kisses Dorothy on the forehead, giving her a charm that protects her against evil, although Dorothy is unaware of the kiss's power. She and Toto set off on the yellow brick road, in search of the and the powerful Wizard of Oz. En route, they meet the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion. These three new companions learn about the wizard from Dorothy, and decide they can use a little help, too. The Scarecrow wants a brain, the Woodsman wants a heart, and the Lion wants courage. Their journey has many obstacles, however, like the deep abyss in the road or the field of poppies that causes all people and animals to fall asleep. Once they finally reach the Emerald City, they are greeted with the city guard, who locks a pair of green spectacles on everyone's head, even Toto. They are allowed into the wizard's presence, but the vast floating head