The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

[danybug]

We just finished reading this aloud as a family. I am pleasantly surprised by how much my kids enjoyed it, including my 3yo dd. And I was also shocked to see how truly different the story was, including the famous ruby slippers actually being silver :glare:

[Dinsfamily]

We finished it two weeks ago and my 6yo really liked it too. I hadn't read it before and was surprised how different it was than the movie. Are you all going to read any of the sequels? We started The Marvelous Land of Oz but I's having trouble getting into it without Dorothy in the story.

[Erica in OR]

We listened to an audio version of The Marvelous Land of Oz. The kids thought the army of girls taking over the Emerald City armed only with knitting needles was hilarious, particularly since our own girls were learning to knit at the time.

 

Erica in OR

[Ellie]

It was the first "real" book I read to my dds when they were 5yo. :-)

 

My mother saw the first-run movie when she was a child. She loved it, and was thrilled to see that it was based on a book. She could hardly wait to go to the library and check it out, and she was *terribly* disappointed in it. :-o

 

We love both the book and the movie. :)

[lmrich]

It is the only movie that it better than the book. My opinion!!

[Lori D.]

Our DSs really loved 2 of the sequels, more than the original: The Land of Oz, and Ozma of Oz. A few other books that are somewhat "fantastical" that they also really enjoyed at that age:

 

- The Twenty-One Balloons (DuBois)

- Just So Stories (Kipling)

- By the Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman)

- The Whipping Boy (Fleischman)

- Trumpet of the Swan (White)

- Ben and I; Mr. Revere and Me (Lawson)

- The Rescuers; Miss Bianca; Miss Bianca in the Orient (Sharpe)

- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series (Betty MacDonald)

- Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis)

- Half Magic; Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle; Time Garden (Eager)

- The Book of Dragons; Five Children and It; The Phoenix and the Carpet (Nesbit)

- The Father Christmas Letters (Tolkien)

- The Ordinary Princess (Kaye)

- The Princess & the Goblins; The Princess & Curdie (MacDonald)

- Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid)

- The Never Ending Story (Ende)

- The Hobbit (Tolkien)

[Karenciavo]

My ds7 read it last year and loved it. I read an article about the supposed allegory in the story.

Edited October 29, 2010 by Karenciavo

[stripe]

We read it last year. Although my kids told me today they remember nothing about it. They don't remember Charlotte's Web either. Or any number of other books we read aloud last year! Ack.

[Medieval Mom]

We FINALLY got this book today from the library, after waiting ten months for the unabridged edition. Yippee:hurray:

 

FWIW, I like the book better than the movie. The Princess Bride, Out of Africa, and Dr. Zhivago are movies, though, that I enjoyed far more than the books!

[lionfamily1999]

It is the only movie that it better than the book. My opinion!!

No no no.

 

Mary Poppins.

 

Hands down ;)

[silver]

I just finished it with my son a week ago. He loved it so much and was sad when I told him it was done. So we're going to continue with the rest of the series.

 

One thing we did with it was to map out Dorothy's adventures. After each chapter, we'd draw on our map what Dorothy had encountered. So we have a map showing her traveling west to the Emerald city, continuing to the Wicked Witch of the West's castle, then south from the Emerald City to see Glinda.

 

I don't remember if the rest of the series lends itself to mapping out the story/journey. Can anyone help with that?

[danybug]

I would agree that I enjoyed the book more than the movie. There was just more of an adventure to it. I forgot that there were more books, it made me remember how I really liked the movie "Return to Oz" when I was little.

[stripe]

The Princess Bride, Out of Africa, and Dr. Zhivago are movies, though, that I enjoyed far more than the books!

I find something about Judy Garland in that movie painful to watch. Whereas I loved the girl (Fairuza Balk) that played Dorothy in Return to Oz.

 

However, as I played Aunt Em in a childhood production, I'll always remember her first line ("Twenty one, twenty two, twenty three -- Dorothy, please! We're trying to count!").

 

Then there's Slumdog Millionaire and its book twin (Q&A)? They are totally different in some really basic ways.

[ReidFamily]

This was our first chapter book read-a-loud and we both really loved it. I'd never read the original before either and so it was a lot of fun for both of us. We really liked comparing and contrasting it to the movie too, which we own.

[Free Indeed]

For those who may not know, this series is free on the Kindle. ;)

[Annie Laurie]

This was one of our first read aloud chapter books too and my youngest was also 3 and actually listened. They were 3, 5, and 6, and the older two still remember it.

[twins05]

Funny, we just finished this book yesterday as a read-a-loud and we really enjoyed it! We saw the live musical this summer. We thought the book was a lot more fun--way more of an adventure than the movie/play. As I hadn't read the book before, I was also surprised that the slippers were silver!

[Beth in SW WA]

Dd7 was reading this at the table during lunch today and said, "Mom, the Wizard isn't real. But God is." :001_smile:

[truebird]

We just finished reading this last night! My 3yo, 5yo, 6yo, and 8yo all greatly enjoyed it and even chose to dress up as Wizard of Oz characters for Halloween (scarecrow, lion, Dorothy, and tin man! So cute, & perhaps the last chance I'll get to enjoy seeing them in matching costumes). We watched the movie tonight, talked about some of the differences between the book and the movie, and sang some of the songs together.

 

The timing of this read-aloud choice has been excellent for us, because a couple weeks ago, my husband, our 8yo, and I got to ride in a hot air balloon while the younger kids watched. The kids all paid VERY close attention to that portion of the book, and I'll bet they'll internalize the science lessons that came along with that better too. :)

 

Other big read-aloud hits in our house have been Charlotte's Web, Trumpet of the Swan, and Wind in the Willows. Next up is Little House in the Big Woods.

[DaffodilDreams]

I just finished it with my son a week ago. He loved it so much and was sad when I told him it was done. So we're going to continue with the rest of the series.

 

One thing we did with it was to map out Dorothy's adventures. After each chapter, we'd draw on our map what Dorothy had encountered. So we have a map showing her traveling west to the Emerald city, continuing to the Wicked Witch of the West's castle, then south from the Emerald City to see Glinda.

 

I don't remember if the rest of the series lends itself to mapping out the story/journey. Can anyone help with that?

 

 

We've read almost all of the books in the series. They're all fabulous - some we enjoyed so much more than the original book in the series. We also enjoyed the letters Baum wrote to his fans. To answer your question, though, yes, absolutely you can map throughout the series. You'll run into lots of different areas of Oz in the series.

[jsleepymom]

We just finished reading this last night! My 3yo, 5yo, 6yo, and 8yo all greatly enjoyed it and even chose to dress up as Wizard of Oz characters for Halloween (scarecrow, lion, Dorothy, and tin man! So cute, & perhaps the last chance I'll get to enjoy seeing them in matching costumes).

 

We are enjoying the book as well! And we also dressed up for Halloween - 7 month old Cowardly Lion, 2 1/2 year old Dorothy, 4 year old Scarecrow and 5 1/2 year old Tin Woodman :). The kids always say 'that's Olivia' when we're reading something about the Lion or that's Josh when reading about the Tin Woodman, etc. It is definitely a favorite book over here :)!

 

I am starting to get the 'Kindle bug', but still don't know that I would be able to love it as much as reading real books (I like the feel of the pages, the smell the pages and the sound of turning pages:tongue_smilie:). Does it seem to work well when reading from it to children? My kids like to look at the book while I read (even when they don't have pictures!).

[Dinsfamily]

Dd7 was reading this at the table during lunch today and said, "Mom, the Wizard isn't real. But God is." :001_smile:

 

Cute! My ds renamed the book, The Dumb Humbug. He just couldn't call it The Wonderful Wizard of Oz after we discovered he was a fake. He did love the book despite the title change.

[mhornby56]

We are enjoying the book as well! And we also dressed up for Halloween - 7 month old Cowardly Lion, 2 1/2 year old Dorothy, 4 year old Scarecrow and 5 1/2 year old Tin Woodman :). The kids always say 'that's Olivia' when we're reading something about the Lion or that's Josh when reading about the Tin Woodman, etc. It is definitely a favorite book over here :)!

 

I am starting to get the 'Kindle bug', but still don't know that I would be able to love it as much as reading real books (I like the feel of the pages, the smell the pages and the sound of turning pages:tongue_smilie:). Does it seem to work well when reading from it to children? My kids like to look at the book while I read (even when they don't have pictures!).

 

I just got my kindle last week and I love it. I only use it with the free books and I have downloaded pdf's onto it too (MEP math). My dd is learning to read, so I love being able to make the words really big when we're reading together so that she can follow along and read some of the words easily. It's wonderful to read from when I'm nursing my baby too, as I only need one hand to hold it and turn the pages. I could go on and on. I love it!

[Spock]

We just finished reading this aloud as a family. I am pleasantly surprised by how much my kids enjoyed it, including my 3yo dd. And I was also shocked to see how truly different the story was, including the famous ruby slippers actually being silver :glare:

 

As a child, I read the book a few years before I saw the movie, and was terribly disappointed in the movie, because it got so many things WRONG. I was especially upset that they left out the village of the china people, which was one of my favorite parts, along with the Scarecrow getting stuck on a pole in the river.

 

I made sure all of my children also read the book first (though my youngest hasn't read it yet), and none of them have wanted to see the movie after hearing that in the movie all of Oz was just a dream and not real after all.

[momto2Cs]

My son just finished the first book and is deep into the second. I was one of my favorite series growing up, so I am really happy watching him enjoy it now. My son did mention "It's not all singing and dancing in the book!"

[truebluexf]

We are almost done reading this book, and I have to say, I haven't loved it as a read aloud. The story is fun, but the writing is so choppy and hard to read aloud. DD1 is over it and wants to move on, she thinks it's boring! It's definitely not the amazing story I thought it would be. I guess we're in the minority, lol.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

I think the "famous" ruby slippers were changed to ruby due to the surprise of color film. Silver just didn't have that punch in a theater full of folks used to black and white.

 

My daughter loves both the movie and the book. She wasn't as enamored of the later books though.

[nmoira]

 

The story is fun, but the writing is so choppy and hard to read aloud.

The difference between the quality of writing in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the next two installments (Marvellous Land of Oz, aka Land of Oz, and Ozma of Oz) left me wondering whether a ghost writer or an extremely assiduous editor was involved. ;) Do read at least the next two; IMHO, they're the best of the series.

[truebluexf]

The difference between the quality of writing in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the next two installments (Marvellous Land of Oz, aka Land of Oz, and Ozma of Oz) left me wondering whether a ghost writer or an extremely assiduous editor was involved. ;) Do read at least the next two; IMHO, they're the best of the series.

 

Thanks, good to know!!!