The Wizard of Oz

Listening to THE WIZARD OF OZ is an eye-opening experience. There's more to this story's plot, themes, and connections than is revealed in the movie classic. Anna Fields's narration creates a new vision of a younger, sweeter Dorothy; more one-dimensional, fairy-tale-like characters; a more adventurous journey to Oz; and a new ending. Although Fields seems stiff and reserved at first, ultimately those same qualities help simplify the story and keep it truer to the original. Her voiced rendition keeps the characters clear most of the time and helps maintain the simple quality of the story, "in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out." W.L.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

October 29, 2012
Caldwell’s angular, dynamic artwork leans more toward Saturday-morning cartoons than romantic fantasy in the fourth comics adaptation in his All-Action Classics series. His Dorothy is gap-toothed and freckled; the black-eyed and troll-like Munchkins are truly alien; and the witches recall Disney villainesses like Snow White’s Queen or The Little Mermaid’s Ursula. (Caldwell’s Wicked Witch of the West even speaks with a Western twang: “You and yer little furry thing have back-breaking, bone-crunching work to do!”) Caldwell follows Baum’s original novel rather than the iconic film. The heroes are pursued by the Kalidah, “horrific beasts, with heads like tigers and bodies like bears,” and the famous path the four friends follow, as in the original, is called the “road of golden bricks.” The humor, though, is his own. “She enslaved and tormented us!” says one Munchkin about the Wicked Witch of the East. “She despoiled our lands!” says a second. “And cut library funding!” adds a third. Caldwell’s Wizard of Oz slots conveniently between Spongebob Squarepants and Adventure Time, and readers will fly through this story with the speed of winged monkeys. Ages 10–14. (Nov.)■

THE WIZARD OF OZ is a bleaker and more frightening book than the movie that was made from it. So children (and their adults) who expect Dorothy to burst into cheery song should be prepared. That said, it is full of adventure. Adams Morgan enunciates his narration overprecisely, sounding somewhat affected until one becomes used to it. Otherwise, his characterizations are delightful--the Tin Woodman even sounds hollow--and his pacing careful enough to let young listeners keep up with the action. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine