{"id":4337,"date":"2025-08-20T15:00:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=4337"},"modified":"2025-06-16T22:36:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T04:36:49","slug":"book-dorothy-and-the-wizard-in-oz-1908","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/20\/book-dorothy-and-the-wizard-in-oz-1908\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft \" src=\"https:\/\/i.gr-assets.com\/images\/S\/compressed.photo.goodreads.com\/books\/1277946475l\/116597.jpg\" alt=\"Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz\" width=\"244\" height=\"334\" \/>Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz<br \/><\/u><\/strong>Year: 1908<br \/>Author: L. Frank Baum<br \/>Length: 148 pages<\/p>\n<p>I appreciate that by the fourth entry in the <a href=\"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/book-the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz-1900\/\"><i>Wizard of Oz<\/i><\/a> series that most of the story beats have become mostly formulaic but that the interesting parts are more about which characters are with Dorothy for the adventure. This way, there are elements of the familiar combined with the newness of different character interactions. In this iteration, we get to see more of the titular Wizard of Oz, the likes of which we haven\u2019t seen since the end of the first book.<\/p>\n<p>You have to appreciate how Baum keeps having Dorothy transition to a new world through natural disasters in our own (almost <i>Narnia<\/i>-like). This time, she\u2019s caught up in an earthquake that puts her in contact with strange creatures. Again, nothing new here. Once the Wizard shows up, it\u2019s fun to see him interact with these fantastical beings since readers of the first book know he\u2019s mostly just a magician who is good at presentation. Turns out, bits of sleight of hand are enough to gain influence in these types of other-worldly settings. I did like that he\u2019s open to learning the real magic, though.<\/p>\n<p>My one qualm is probably that there were a few too many moments that seemed too convenient for the cast of characters to escape their predicament. This is less clever than having Dorothy show her ingenuity and save the group that way. I know some consider this to be darker than the previous books, but as an adult, I didn\u2019t find any of the imagery or plotlines too scary. Of course, that\u2019s always something present in at least some amount in older children\u2019s books, regardless.<\/p>\n<p>A fun journey with the original Wizard, I give <i>Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz<\/i> 3.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/> <strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/> 1\/2<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/bmw-the-critic\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"820\" height=\"312\" src=\"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/BMW-the-Critic-v3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/BMW-the-Critic-v3.png 820w, https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/BMW-the-Critic-v3-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/BMW-the-Critic-v3-768x292.png 768w, https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/BMW-the-Critic-v3-640x244.png 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dorothy and the Wizard in OzYear: 1908Author: L. Frank BaumLength: 148 pages I appreciate that by the fourth entry in the Wizard of Oz series that most of the story beats have become mostly formulaic but that the interesting parts are more about which characters are with Dorothy for the adventure. This way, there are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,54],"tags":[2255,55,4165,4174,4156,4154,4155,8,4175],"class_list":["post-4337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-5-stars","category-book","tag-2255","tag-book","tag-dorothy","tag-dorothy-and-the-wizard-in-oz","tag-dorothy-gale","tag-l-frank-baum","tag-oz","tag-review","tag-the-wizard-of-oz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4345,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337\/revisions\/4345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}