Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

My first encounter with the source material

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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Cbr17bingo Green I never read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a kid. Like many, my acquaintance with the story was from the 1939 film, which I always enjoyed watching even though the flying monkeys and Wicked Witch scared me. Later, in high school or college, I remember hearing that the original story was an allegory about turn-of-the-century American populism and the argument over whether or not the gold standard should be abandoned. You can read a bit about that theory here. Whether or not […]

Not for me, but my son loved it

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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My son doesn’t like reading, which is a huge mystery in my house as my wife and I love books and have a house full of them. So it’s always a bit of a struggle finding something for him to read at night. I read Bone by Jeff Smith to him, and he loved it, and he got real into Captain Underpants and a series called Dog Man, both by Dav Pilkey, but I haven’t been able to find anything else to capture his interest. […]

There’s no place like home

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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Having read my 4yo son the first Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind graphic novel this year, I thought it was time to advance to an all-words-no-pictures book and see if he could handle it. So I scoured my shelves in search of something fitting. Harry Potter? Hmmm not quite yet. The Witches? Bit scary. Alice in Wonderland? Too contrived. Then I came upon an old faded copy of the Wizard of Oz that held much promise. Of course this story is extremely well-known, […]

Before “I’ll get you my pretty and your little dog, too!”

What is the Story of the Wizard of Oz? by Kirsten Anderson

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What is the Story of the Wizard of Oz? In Kirsten Anderson’s book it starts at the end of the history (or the most recent piece of history) and works its way back to a boy who would write a beloved classic. We see the life and times of a man named Lyman Frank Baum (or more commonly known as L. Frank Baum) and how over a hundred-years one book (and eventually its sequels) is still in our sights. Each chapter does flow from the […]

I must ask to strain an imagination you have no right to exercise.

The Marvelous Land of Oz by L Frank Baum

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Book 2! This is book two of the Oz series by L Frank Baum. It’s the direct sequel to the Wizard of Oz in that it takes place about half a generation after the events of that book and returns to the world left when Dorothy left. Dorothy is now a kind of mythic figure, and I don’t actually know these books well, so I don’t know if she’ll be back. Instead, we are given Tip, a boy who lives with the witch Mombie. Tip […]

I think you are wrong to want a heart. It makes most people unhappy.

The Wonderful Wizard of OZ by L Frank Baum

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This is another reread and a funny one — although actually this a relisten to a book I read as a kid. More or less this is the movie. There’s some minor difference, including and especially the scope and role of the Wicked Witch. And the movie is entirely brilliant in the ways it balances the B/W Kansas scenes and the color/Oz scenes, as well as the doubling of the casting. The other thing that’s really interesting is that whatever the limitations of the book […]



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