[764]⇒ Download Free The Marvellous Land of Oz Puffin Classics L Frank Baum David McKee 9780140350418 Books

The Marvellous Land of Oz Puffin Classics L Frank Baum David McKee 9780140350418 Books

Download As PDF : The Marvellous Land of Oz Puffin Classics L Frank Baum David McKee 9780140350418 Books

The Marvellous Land of Oz Puffin Classics L Frank Baum David McKee 9780140350418 Books

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz went over well with my five-year-old son, so he chose this one to read together at bedtime. This one is a different experience, because there are fewer MGM-tinged preconceptions. It's just as easy to read aloud, and, if you're squeamish, the body count is considerably lower than the first time around.

This story isn't as timeless and self-contained as the first book, but that doesn't work against it. It's exactly what you want: an exploration of Oz after Dorothy left. In fact, there are no characters from the real world at all (with the possible exception of the Jackdaws).

There are some interesting themes to examine here. There are explorations of gender, politics, and gender politics. Not to mention the questions it raises over the nature of life and the responsibility of creating life.

Baum cheated a bit by including the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman as main characters to advertise the real-world stage play. But the new characters are just as imaginative: the marvelous Jack Pumpkinhead, the snarky Sawhorse, the sesquipedalian Woggle Bug, and the patched-together Gump. The audience surrogate, Tip, is a nice follow-up to Dorothy. Being a native of Oz, his goals are very different, but he's just as assertive and loyal.

I think the villains are a bit more interesting this time around. Mombi does more interesting things with her magic than the Wicked Witch, and General Jinjur is just fabulous. There are some who would take offense at the dated portrayal of a rebellious woman, but stick around to the end and L. Frank Baum might win you back over. Baum probably didn't intend to write a book about gender identity, but it makes the book surprisingly relevant today.

For the best experience, find a copy with the John R. Neill illustrations. The images are very different than those of W. W. Denslow in the Wizard of Oz, but they are full of energy and imagination. I'm glad Neill became the archetypal illustrator for Baum's world.

The Land of Oz is a delightful sequel to a beloved book. If you or someone you love is longing for another journey to Oz, this will fit the bill.


Tags : The Marvellous Land of Oz (Puffin Classics) [L. Frank Baum, David McKee] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Few fantasy lands have captured our hearts and imaginations as has the marvelous land of Oz. For over four generations,L. Frank Baum, David McKee,The Marvellous Land of Oz (Puffin Classics),Puffin,0140350411,General,Baby books,Children: Babies & Toddlers,Juvenile Fiction,Juvenile Fiction General

The Marvellous Land of Oz Puffin Classics L Frank Baum David McKee 9780140350418 Books Reviews

After discovering the stark reality that the story I had thought I had known since I was a little child was it truth vastly different from the movie I had grown up watching every year on television, I was naturally curious to see where Mr. Baum went next in the merry old land of Oz.

The very first assumption I had shattered was that all the stories centered around our beloved friend Dorothy. They do not! In fact, dear Dorothy does not appear in this story at all. The Marvelous Land of Oz actually features the adventures of a young orphan boy named Tip and his rather different group of friends, which include Jack Pumpkinhead, the Wooden Sawhorse, the Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, and the amazing Gump, along with our old friends the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman.

In this adventure Tip escapes from the clutches of an evil old witch named Mombi and with the aid of his friends battle General Jinjur and her army of knitting needle wielding young girls to regain control of the Emerald City. The plot twist at the end for me was the real selling point of this story as Tip and his friends discover the location of Princess Ozma, the true ruler of the Land of Oz. A very different tale to say the least, but a fun one and something I can certainly see myself reading again.
As a child of the ‘80s, my exposure to the world of Oz was through the Wizard of Oz movie, where I was traumatized by the witch and the flying monkeys. I was equally traumatized by the 1985 movie Return to Oz, which I was somehow allowed to watch at the very young age of 6 or 7 years old. When I decided to read the Oz books, I had no idea that books two (The World of Oz) and three (this one, Ozma of Oz) were the basis for that horror film that was marketed as a kids’ movie. As my relationship with the movie and this book are intertwined, there will be some MILD SPOILERS for both Ozma of Oz (book) and Return to Oz (movie).

The movie Return to Oz starts out with Dorothy about to receive electro-shock therapy at an insane asylum. This in itself is horrific. There is some freak thunderstorm, and Dorothy ends up floating in a river/across an ocean with a chicken. The book has none of the sanitorium or electro-shock therapy. Instead, Dorothy is traveling across the Pacific Ocean with Uncle Henry to visit some relatives in Australia to help improve Uncle Henry’s poor health, and she ends up getting tossed overboard with a chicken. Why would you put an insane asylum/electro-shock therapy in a kids’ movie? This may be the weirdest production choice of the movie for me, but is only the starting point of traumatizing scenes.

Dorothy and the chicken, who can talk now, end up in Oz (in the movie) or Ev (in the book). This part is of the movie is fairly faithful to the book, with horrifying descriptions of the Wheelers which I find much more frightening than flying monkeys. In the book, however, the author goes to great pains to explain the Wheelers can’t actually hurt anyone so there is no reason to fear them. Dorothy and the chicken find Tik Tok, a wind up mechanical man which is pretty much the same in both book and movie and is awesome in both. There is “dangerous sand” in the book, but at no point did I get the impression that touching it would instantly turn you in to sand and then you crumble, as the movie goes into great detail with (as much as I hated the Wheelers, I hate this sand part even more).

Dorothy then meets a queen that changes heads instead of changes dresses, and the Queen locks up Dorothy because she wants her head for her collection. In the movie, you see stone statues of people with their heads removed and I assumed this is where she got the heads in the first place. This may be one of the creepiest scenes I have ever seen ever in a movie – I actively avoid horror movies, but I have seen a few – nothing compares to the Queen changing heads and especially the headless queen chasing after Dorothy when she tries to escape. The book, as per usual, downplays the head changing part, and the queen even offers to give Dorothy a different head in exchange for hers. There is no mention of headless statues.

In the movie, this is the point where Dorothy escapes on the flying Gump -- a sofa with a Gump (moose) head attached to it, palm leaves for wings, brought to life with magic powder. She also meets Jack Pumpkinhead at this point. In the books, these characters were introduced in the previous book, the Wonderful World of Oz, as was Ozma of Oz. Instead of Dorothy flying off with the Gump, a whole slew of characters arrives to rescue her (by talking to the queen and threatening her with the army of Oz), but only after the Scarecrow makes some wisecracks about Dorothy looking perfectly safe up in the window and not needing to be rescued. Dorothy teams up with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, Ozma, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Sawhorse, some soldiers, a tiger, and a magic carpet to venture to the underground lair of the Rock Eater to rescue the royal family of Ev. Since the movie leaves out the entire Ev plotline, in the movie Dorothy travels to rescue the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, and Ozma I believe.

I was shocked that Return to Oz was actually based on books written by L. Frank Baum and not something some movie writer in the ‘80s came up with while on a “binge” of some sort. This book (and the movie Return to Oz) is ridiculous and I’m not sure if it’s appropriate for children.

Am I glad I read this book? Yes, because I have now come to terms with something that has haunted me since childhood.

Do I recommend this book? Hmm… L. Frank Baum’s writing style is written for kids and is quite simplistic compared to Lewis Carroll or J.M Barrie and at times can be difficult to read based on when it was written (1907). But, if you are like me and need to exorcize some demons from your childhood – dive in!

Also, while I do have some issues with the nature and writing of this book, I find it remarkable that L. Frank Baum chose to center at least the first three books (Wizard of Oz, Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz) on strong, powerful female protagonists over 100 years ago. Good job L. Frank Baum!
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz went over well with my five-year-old son, so he chose this one to read together at bedtime. This one is a different experience, because there are fewer MGM-tinged preconceptions. It's just as easy to read aloud, and, if you're squeamish, the body count is considerably lower than the first time around.

This story isn't as timeless and self-contained as the first book, but that doesn't work against it. It's exactly what you want an exploration of Oz after Dorothy left. In fact, there are no characters from the real world at all (with the possible exception of the Jackdaws).

There are some interesting themes to examine here. There are explorations of gender, politics, and gender politics. Not to mention the questions it raises over the nature of life and the responsibility of creating life.

Baum cheated a bit by including the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman as main characters to advertise the real-world stage play. But the new characters are just as imaginative the marvelous Jack Pumpkinhead, the snarky Sawhorse, the sesquipedalian Woggle Bug, and the patched-together Gump. The audience surrogate, Tip, is a nice follow-up to Dorothy. Being a native of Oz, his goals are very different, but he's just as assertive and loyal.

I think the villains are a bit more interesting this time around. Mombi does more interesting things with her magic than the Wicked Witch, and General Jinjur is just fabulous. There are some who would take offense at the dated portrayal of a rebellious woman, but stick around to the end and L. Frank Baum might win you back over. Baum probably didn't intend to write a book about gender identity, but it makes the book surprisingly relevant today.

For the best experience, find a copy with the John R. Neill illustrations. The images are very different than those of W. W. Denslow in the Wizard of Oz, but they are full of energy and imagination. I'm glad Neill became the archetypal illustrator for Baum's world.

The Land of Oz is a delightful sequel to a beloved book. If you or someone you love is longing for another journey to Oz, this will fit the bill.