The wonderful wizard of oz door Lyman Frank Baum

Summary

Dorothy lived with Uncle Henry, Aunt Em and her little black dog Toto on the Kansas prairie when a cyclone hits the house and whisked Dorothy and Toto to the magical Land of Oz.
The house has landed on the Wicked Witch of the East and the people are very pleased for setting them free from bondage. The Good Witch of the North is there and tells her that if she wants to get back to Kansas, Only the Great Oz can help her. Se has to follow the road of yellow brick to get to the Emeralds City, where the Wizard lives. The Witch gives Dorothy her protecting kiss and she may keep the beautiful silver shoes of the Wicked Witch of the East.
On her way, Dorothy meets new friends who want to travel with her to Oz. There is a Scarecrow, who wants to get brains, a Tin Woodman, who really want to get a heart and a Cowardly Lion, who wishes to have all the courage of the world. Together they go through a lot of adventures. They have to kill Kalidahs: great beasts with bodies like bears and heads likes tigers, cross wild rivers, walk through a deadly poppy field: the odour is so powerful that anyone who breaths it falls asleep, to never wake up again. Fortunately they were saved by hundreds of little mice an eventually they get to the green Emeralds City. The wizard wants to see all the comrades but tells them all they have to kill the Wicked Witch of the West before he will help them. They go to the land of the West but the witch doesn’t want them there so she sends a pack of great wolves, a flock of wild crows, a swarm of black bees and an army of her slaves. The company survived all this creatures but then the Wicked Witch sends a crowd of Winked Monkeys. They dropped the Tin Woodman on sharp rocks, they pulled the straw out of the Scarecrow and threw him in a tall tree, they caught the Cowardly Lion and put him in the yard of the Wicked Witch, but Dorothy they could not harm because of the kiss of the Good Witch, so they brought her to the Wicked Witch and she made Dorothy her slave. But Dorothy figures out that the Wicked Witch is afraid of water so she picks up a bucket of water and dashes it over the Witch. The woman gives a loud cry and melts away. Dorothy calls the Winked Monkeys and they help her to get her friends back together and bring them to the Great Oz again. There they discover Oz is not a great wizard, he is a little old man behind a screen in the corner of the throne room who pretends he is a great wizard with little tricks. Though, he gives the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion what they wished for: he all makes them believe he did so, because their problem was all between the ears. To help Dorothy he makes a great balloon to travel together over the great dessert that surrounds the Land of Oz. But the next morning, when the balloon was ready, the rope cracked and the balloon left with Oz but without Dorothy.
A soldier tells them they can go to the Good Witch of the South, Glinda, maybe she can help them. The journey to the South is also hard. They have to get trough a forest with attacking trees, with in the middle a country with very little people all made of china and the beasts of the forest want the lion to become their king. A great terrible spider kills many beasts and the lion has to kill it. So he does, ‘cause he is very brave now. Then they get to a great mountain guarded by aggressive men without arms and who can shoot whit their heads like bullets. Fortunately they can call the Winked Monkeys a last time and they pick them up and bring them over the mountain. They get to the palace of Glinda and The Good Witch calls the Winked Monkeys, who you can call for three times, to take the scarecrow to the Emeralds City again, where he became the new ruler after Oz flew away. The Tin Woodman goes to the Winkies, who liked him very much to rule over them and the Monkeys bring the lion back to the forest, to be the king of all animals. Then she tells Dorothy about the magical power of the silver shoes of the Wicked Witch of the East which she is still wearing. The shoes can take you everywhere you want to go in three steps. After thanking the Good Witch, Dorothy tells the shoes she wants to go back home to her Uncle Henry an Aunt Em in Kansas and after three steps she is standing on the broad Kansas prairie.

Characters

Dorothy
Dorothy is a little girl who lives with her uncle and aunt because she is an orphan. She has long dark hair and is waering colorful dresses. Home, she laughed a lot but when she is taken to the Land of Oz she cries often and is a little afraid of all the weird people in the country. Fortunatelly, she mets the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion who want to protect, and for exchange, she will help them to get what they wish for: brains, a heart or courage.

The Cowardly Lion
All the animals naturally expect he is very brave lion, and if he roars every little thing is frightened. But if enyone will try to figt the lion, he will run away as fast as he can, like a real coward.
He thinks he is born that way an wants to go to the Great Wizard to get all the courage of the world. Oz gives him something green and liquid with an awful smell. The Cowardly Lion drinks it and emediatelly he feels very brave and full of courage, he really believes in the power of the ‘Great Wizard of Oz’.

Own opinion

I’ve heard a lot about the story of Oz and when I was little I followed the cartoon series but never new the real story. Now, when I’ve red it, I can say that I really like the book. Except there are a few violent pieces in the story, by example: the Tin Woodman chops off the head of a great yellow Wildcat who’s chasing a little field mouse or the Scarecrow catches forty crows, one by one, and twists its neck until it cracks, just to protect his friends on their journey to the Wicked Witch of the West but it was very surprising to read it in a sweet book like this.
I have chosen this book because our library had not any other book of this kind except a few stories from R. Dahl and, as I said, I never new the real story about the Wizard of Oz so I came home with this nice and exciting bedtime story.