Oz

[anotheranon]

No, not the show, the books. And the movie. And, I'm discovering, lots of the other stuff as well....

Let me explain. I was first hooked by the series as a kid back in the '70s-'80s. I remember that the classic movie was always aired once a year on network tv with much fanfare, and it was one of the times my sister and I commanded the tv. It's cute, it's fun, it has songs.

But the books were so much better! I can't remember when I read the first, but it was so much clearer that Dorothy was a little girl - a little girl (like I was at the time), but she had adventures. With her dog. To a kid, that sells it :)

Being an obsessive child I saved my allowance and got each successive one, though I remember them being hard to find. Big huge day when I finally found the last one.

I named my favorite doll Dorothy, and had some Barbie-size dolls of the characters from the movie. Later I made some of the series characters (I can only remember Sawhorse) myself, and additional clothes for the small dolls (my first sewing projects?). Biggest triumph was accompanying Dad to the workbench to make a life-size Jack Pumpkinhead that sat outside for many Halloweens (and in the living room most of the rest of the year).

And I grew up, and moved on. Rereading them now I have to admit they're definitely for kids, and rather schmaltzy.

But then someone told me about Wicked.

I'm finding that Oz is still everywhere. I only recently found out that "Wicked" had sequels??, and even the Muppets played in that universe. The purist kid I was would be horrified (I never bothered with ANYTHING but the original L. Frank Baum books, thankyewverramuch), but my adult self is amused and surprised at all the variations that continue to come out of that 100-year-old sandbox :)

Though I'm hanging on to my dogeared, mismatched set of the original 14, in a musty box pending actual shelf space.

What book or book series from your childhood casts a long shadow?

Comments

[folo1.livejournal.com]

ERB's Martian series and Two-Gun Bob's Conan series are gems. however, speaking of Oz, if you ever run across any of Eric Shanower's Oz graphic novels, grab them. Eric did the best Oz continuations I've seen, and Phil Farmer even did one!

[timcharmorbien.livejournal.com]

The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I loved those books and read them over and over again. They have also had variations written by other people, I didn't care for them and the TV show and TV movies based on the books tended to make me angry. I begged my mother for an advance on my allowance so that I could buy Mrs. Wilder's biography. In college, I wrote a paper on her for a children's literature class. Tim even took me to visit her last home, Rocky Ridge, before we left Missouri.
My mother did buy the Wizard of OZ and The Land of Oz for us. I didn't know till many years later that there were more of the books or that the Land of Oz featured the first sex change in fiction.
We have the sequel to Wicked, Son of the Witch, and would be more then happy to send it to you if you want it. We also have the Philip J. Farmer book as well if you would like.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

The OZ series (though I never could find them all) was a favorite, especially the ones with the original Denislow illustrations. (Maybe that's where my love of Art Nouveau comes from?)

Others include:

• Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series - my family was big into the bicentennial and I love the adventures of a pioneer girl.


• C.S. Lewis' - Chronicles of Narnia - I loved the adventures though I missed the heavy duty Christian allegory stuff until I was an adult.


• Katherine Kurtz's - Deryni books, both the History of King Kelson and the Camber Series. I fell madly in love with Kelson as a teen and read the Camber series right after my mom died and especially the Camber series has become so intertwined with the emotions of that time period that as good as the Camber books were I can't go back and reread them.


• Anne McCaffrey's Pern books - I identified with Menolly and Brekke


Books have always been my first love and a comfort when nothing else has been. I suppose it was inevitable that I became a librarian! ;-p

[badmagic.livejournal.com]

Have you only read the Baum Oz books, or have you discovered the Ruth Plumly Thompson ones?