Nook Book: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Length: 280 pages

Format: Nook Book
Price: $.99
Author Website: doesn't appear to be one...

Basic Premise: Dorothy has accidentally landed herself in Oz - a land of Munchkins, Winkies, witches, and flying monkeys.  Her dearest desire is to return home, but it proves to be more difficult than she at first thought.

My Take: 3.5 out of 10 (scale here)
I, like every other child of my generation, grew up watching this film.  When my book club chose this book, I was excited to read it.  However, I was quite disappointed with this book.  It was highly episodic (a story structure I truly loathe) and predictable, even though the book and film bear very little resemblance to one another.  The cyclone occurs within the first few pages of the book, Glenda the Good Witch shows up in only the last few pages of the book, and the Wicked Witch of the West plays only a small role in the middle of the story.  Some other interesting differences include Dorothy's age (she is a young child in the book), the silver, not ruby, slippers, and fact that the flying monkeys, after doing the bidding of the Wicked Witch of the West, serve Dorothy and prove themselves to be loyal and even loveable creatures.  The many, many, many liberties taken by the film makers were good decisions, in my view.  As it turns out, there are several more books in the series, but I won't be reading them.