Growing Up With the Oz Books

Winged Monkey Image via Wikimedia.

 This is the page where you can leave a comment about the Oz articles.

I cannot emphasize enough how much the Oz books affected me as I was growing up. I eagerly waited each night for my bedtime story time to begin. My imagination grabbed onto L Frank Baum's descriptions and entered into the fantastic world he had created.

These images have stayed with me all my life and pop up at the most unusual times. It might be a glimpse of Glinda reading from her Great Book, the Nome King turning people in knickknacks, and even Princess Langwidere changing one of her heads. I never know what triggers it, it just happens.

I decided to write a series of articles about the Oz books because I was horrified to find out that many people believed there was only one book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In fact, there are 14 books written by Baum and I have read them all.

I began the journey with the article "Following the Yellow Brick Road." I soon found out that there was too much information, about both the books and Frank Baum's life to easily fit into one article. I decided to continue the story with additional articles.

If you have come here first, whisk yourself of to Following the Yellow Brick Road to read about Dorothy's adventures in the first three books.

The second article is called "Oz--Oz! more about Oz, Mr. Baum!" where I continue to discuss the writer L. Frank Baum and his influence on children's literature.

The third article in the Oz series answers many questions like "Why doesn't Toto talk? We meet the Patchwork Girl and a mechanical man. We also learn about Frank Baum's dark side. Visit Interesting Tidbits from L Frank Baum’s Oz Books.

The last of the four part article is called L Frank Baum's Last Five Oz Books. There you will meet more unusual characters and learn about how Baum wrote several books while he was sick in bed.

Then you can grab the tail of the tornado and come back here to leave a comment. Please feel free to leave a comment. I promise that no Winged Monkeys will fly in to take you away.

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