Customer Reviews

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Sterling Classics)

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I just can't get enough of 'the Wonderful Wizard of Oz', be it book or movie - I have 24 editions of 'Wizard'!
I pre-ordered a copy through Angus & Robertson and after a few months I got it and saw for myself what sort of new pictures would be in this edition: Scott McKowen's drawing style for his new pictures is very much like Barry Moser's 'wood-engravings' (in the 1986 Pennyroyal Press California edition; see my review of that), although there aren't as many pictures. Much earlier I saw other 'Unabridged Classics' editions of "The Secret Garden" and "A Little Princess" also illustrated by Scott Mckowen, and skimming through them I noticed that not every chapter had a picture; the same is here. A picture of the Silver Shoes appears in every chapter, and the rest of the pictures (apart from the cover) are Dorothy (wearing the shoes), her friends, the Witch & Wizard, the King of Winged Monkies, the oil-can and a pair of green spectacles, and of course I believe that there should've been a lot more. I definitely would have liked to see how the cyclone, Good Witches, Land of Oz, Emerald City, Yellow Brick Road, Kansas and all the others would have looked like had Scott continued with the pictures, even if the process might be tiring. But I especially like how the cover has Dorothy looking through a window of the house upside down in the cyclone.
Aside from the illustrations, another thing that's new is 'Questions, Questions, Questions' by Arthur Pober, Ed. D., where he not only talks about the "joy of reading and rereading classic books" but also lists a series of questions to "generate ideas about the story never thought before", as well as "springboard new thoughts, ideas and interpretations of our favourite books." and give us the "opportunities to rethink your initial impressions of a character, event or storyline".
There are also pages on Arthur Pober Ed. D. (the Afterword), L. Frank Baum (the Author) and Scott McKowen (the Illustrator, which also explains how these 'wood engraving pictures' are accomplished) and a list of other 'reinterpreted' books by Scott McKowen/Unabridged Classics.

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is one of the best well known and beloved modern fairy tales. However, most people have only come to know it thanks to the wonderful film adaptation of the same name. To be sure, the film version is probably one of the best movies of all time, but there is something to be said for reading the book in its own right. The book turns out to be as wonderful and endearing as I had expected, with all the main characters portrayed in greater depth and with even more attention to their human distinctiveness. There are also a few scenes in the book that had not made it to the movie, and it was interesting to read these for the first time. The book is charming and well written, although some people today might have an issue with a few violent scenes that tend to be more graphic than what acceptable in children's books these days. Personally I was not bothered by this one bit, and view the book as good, clean fun.

I forgot how much I loved The Wonderful Wizard of Oz until I heard my daughter reading it to her 3 and 5 year olds. They were captivated by the story, using their imagination to picture all the characters. She read it to them before they watched the movie I recommend reading the original before watching the movie, the book brings it to life.

We all know of the story "The Wizard of Oz" from the movie but I wanted to read the original story. This is it. 1905 version. Don't be mislead by the age level of 9-12. It's way more advanced than that. It's interesting how the story from book to movie is so different. I got hooked on the whole "Wizard of Oz" story after seeing "Wicked" on Broadway. I then read the book "Wicked" and followed with "Son of a Witch" both by Gregory Maguire. Excellent books. I'd recommend both of these as well.