The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz
Author:  L. Frank Baum

Book review

By :Laynee R.

Characters: Dorothy is a Kansas girl how lives with her aunt and uncle, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.

The scarecrow is a straw man who is very brilliant but wants brains.

The tin woodman is a tin man who was a real man but was cursed in a very disturbing way and survived, in the accident the tin woodman lost his heart and doesn’t have a heart now but is so passionate about everything and thinks even the tiniest lives matter to him.

The cowardly lion is an act tough look tough creature, on the outside he looks very mighty but inside he is a scared lion with no bravery.

Settings: There are four lands that Dorothy and friends visit, the land of the Munchkins, the beautiful blue land that the late Wicked Witch of the East ruled. The place of the beasts, were the lion kills the giant spider that has taken over the beasts land. Dorothy and everybody go to the Emerald city a “beautiful” green land. 

               In Kansas a girl named Dorothy lived with her aunt and uncle, they had a small farm house that fit no more than 2 beds, one stove, one table and three chairs. One day a cyclone came and uncle Henry yelled, “Get into the storm cellar!” So Dorothy and aunt Em went down to the storm cellar with Dorothy’s little dog Toto following behind. When the house blows away, Dorothy goes up the storm then walks over to her bed lays down takes Toto into her arms and falls asleep. Dorothy wakes up, she goes to look outside and there are three people as tall as she is dressed in blue, then  a women who was  dressed in white came up to the little girl and said, “you have killed the Wicked Witch of the East!” Dorothy act surprised, and didn’t mean to kill any one. The Wicked Witch of the east had taken over the land of Munchkins and now that the witch was dead they were free from the witch. The women dressed in white also explained that she was the Good Witch of The North and is the ruler of the Quadlings. The witch gave Dorothy a pair of silver slippers that the late witch had been wearing. Dorothy put the shoes on and before Dorothy left on her journey the witch gives her a kiss. The witch said that nobody would harm someone with this mark on their forehead. Although it didn’t seem that Dorothy wanted to go home or was sad it was quite the opposite, Dorothy had been very distracted by all the fuss that she forgot that she possibly millions of miles away from home. So the witch told Dorothy to go to the great Oz and follow the yellow brick road. Now Dorothy started on her journey and a little way outside the village Dorothy came to a fence on the side of the road and looked at the corn patch and saw a Scarecrow that slowly winked at her and then started to talk and eventually asked Dorothy to get him down from the pole he rested on, the scarecrow told Dorothy how he longed for brains so Dorothy invited him to go to Oz and see if he would give the Scarecrow brains. The Scarecrow agreed so Dorothy and the Scarecrow were on their way to Oz. they were on their way when they heard a groan coming from a bush they peered in and there a man completely made of tin with his axe in midair was frozen in this position he groaned to get his oil can and oil his joints. Once Dorothy oiled the Tinman’s joints they talked to the Tinman, and told how he longed for a heart so Dorothy asked if he would like to go with them on their journey to Oz the Tinman said yes so Dorothy, Scarecrow and the Tinman were now on their journey, after Dorothy had a night’s sleep. The friends fallowed the yellow brick road till they got into a scary part of the forest, then a lion jumped out and went straight for Toto till Dorothy slapped him on the nose and picked up Toto. The lion was hurt then Dorothy saw how cowardly the lion was and forgave him the friends talked to the lion and then he talked on about how he longed to have courage so Dorothy invited the lion to come to Oz with them and the lion agreed so they went on their way to Oz. They came to a big gate of emerald then Dorothy knocked on the gate and a little man appeared dressed in green garments asked them what they were doing there and they told him that they were there to see the great Oz and the man let them in immediately and escorted them to the palace where they were taken care of until Oz told them that they must kill the Wicked Witch of The West so when the friends got to the palace the witch saw them and sent wolfs, crows and bees but the tinman fought and beat them all then the witch sent the flying monkeys with a magic cap and the monkeys tore up the scarecrow, dropped the tinman and brought the lion, Dorothy, and Toto to the palace where the lion was kept captive and Dorothy living in the palace. The witch grew very fond of Dorothy’s shoes and one day the witch came up with a scheme to give her the shoes, she would place an invisible rode on the floor and hopefully a shoe would come off so Dorothy tripped over the rode and one shoe came off and the witch stole it without thinking Dorothy grabbed a bucket of water and killed the Wicked Witch, the witch had an odd disability, she would melt if touched water. All the friends returned thanks to the help of the people that lived in the land, but before Dorothy left she grabbed the magic golden cap. All friends returned to the emerald city and discovered Oz was no wizard just a tiny man behind a curtain Oz gave all the brains to the scarecrow he could ever want and the tinman a big heart and the lion a cup of courage. The Oz couldn’t figure out a way but then he said that they could fly away on a hot air balloon, so Dorothy made the hot air balloon and when the day came to fly out on the hot air balloon Toto was chasing a kitten and before Dorothy could get Toto and in the balloon it was too late Oz yelled from the balloon that the scarecrow was in charge. Dorothy still wanted to go home so she called the monkeys and asked to carry her to the witch of the south so they did and the witch told Dorothy that the shoes had the power to transport her back to Kansas so Dorothy grabbed Toto and and the witch told her to click her hells three times, so she clicked her heels together three times and Dorothy rolled on to the fields and saw the new house uncle Henry had built then Dorothy ran towards aunt Em and gave her the biggest hug ever.   

Problem/solution: Dorothy is stuck in the Land of Oz but clicks her heels three times and is whisked back to Kansas 

Irony: The scarecrow in certain situations has very smart ideas but says that he has no brains, I think that instead of not having brains he doesn’t have common sense. The Tinman also in some situations is so compassionate but he has no heart, like in the book he kills a lot of things but he cares for thing.

The narrator explains things very well and gives not always pleasant imagery put give a very interesting one. This book has witches talking lions, scarecrow and tinman. The winged monkeys would be my favorite part, they are really funny. This book is very different then the movie I would recommend this book to anyone over eight. There is a lot of gruesome things in this book, a lot of murder.