The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

by L. Frank Baum
Series: Oz 1
Reviewed date: 2017 Dec 11
219 pages
cover art

The shoes are silver, not ruby.

In the first few chapters, it's the City of Emeralds. Later, it's the Emerald City.

It is a road paved with yellow brick, but the exact phrase "yellow brick road" is never used.

Glinda is the good witch of the South, and Dorothy doesn't meet her until the very end of the book.

The Good Witch of the North marks Dorothy with a kiss on her forehead, which protects her from mistreatment at the hands of the Winged Monkeys.

The weather in Oz seems remarkably mild. Dorothy spends many nights sleeping outside. It's never too cold, too hot, too rainy or stormy.

The inhabitants of Oz are friendly. The countryside is dotted with farmhouses, and whenever Dorothy gets hungry, she knocks on a door and the family feeds her dinner.

The China Country adventure is a single chapter and hardly anything happens. Dorothy startles a cow, who kicks over a milkmaid, breaking a leg and nicking the milkmaid's elbow. Then the Cowardly Lion knocks over a church with his tail as they leave.

Dorothy spends days, perhaps weeks or months, toiling as a slave for the Wicked Witch of the West.

Dorothy melts the Wicked Witch of the West by throwing a bucket of water over her during an argument over the silver shoes, which the Witch was trying to steal.

It's remarked that the Tin Woodman "was not a vain man" which doesn't fit, because I distinctly remember him being rather vain about his shiny nickel-plated body in subsequent books.

The Tin Woodman wants Oz to give him a heart so he can go back to his Munchkin sweetheart and marry her. That's the last we ever hear about his true love. And hey, this means the Tin Woodman is a Munchkin!

How does the Tin Woodman rust? Tin doesn't rust.

Dorothy spent months in Oz. Long enough for Uncle Henry to build a new farmhouse.


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