Why this book

When Baum wrote it in 1900, he set out to build a new kind of fairy tale — homegrown and kind, with the old nightmares left out. Oz became America's own myth, and its yellow road has been walked by children ever since.

The Story

On the flat gray Kansas prairie, Dorothy lives with stern Aunt Em and silent Uncle Henry in one bare little room. The sun has bleached everything gray, even Aunt Em's cheeks. Only Toto, her small black dog, keeps Dorothy laughing.

One day a cyclone comes howling out of the north. Uncle Henry runs for the cattle and Aunt Em drops into the storm cellar, but Dorothy chases Toto back inside. Therefore the whirlwind seizes the whole house and carries it, spinning, high into the sky.

The house rides the storm for hours, therefore the exhausted Dorothy falls asleep on the floor. When it thumps down at last and she opens the door, she looks out upon a country of green meadows, bright birds, and gentle people no taller than herself.

These are the Munchkins, and they thank her tearfully: her falling house has crushed the Wicked Witch of the East, who kept them as slaves. Therefore the Good Witch of the North gives Dorothy the dead witch's silver shoes and a kiss to keep her safe.

But Dorothy wants only Kansas. The Good Witch cannot carry her there, therefore she tells the girl to walk to the Emerald City and beg help from the great Wizard of Oz. So Dorothy sets out along a road paved with yellow brick.

By a cornfield she finds a Scarecrow stuffed with straw, alive and wriggling on his pole. She lifts him down, therefore he joins her gladly — for he longs above everything for one gift: a head full of brains instead of straw.

Deeper in the forest they find a Tin Woodman rusted stiff, groaning through frozen jaws. Dorothy oils his joints, therefore he swings his axe free and walks with them. He wants a heart, he says, so that he might love again.

Then a great Lion bounds out roaring, but when he strikes at Toto, Dorothy slaps his nose and calls him a coward. Ashamed, the Lion confesses he is frightened of everything, therefore he joins them to ask the Wizard for courage.

So four travelers now walk the yellow road together: Dorothy for home, the Scarecrow for brains, the Tin Woodman for a heart, the Lion for courage. Each of them believes the Wizard alone holds the power to grant his wish.

The road breaks at a wide ditch, therefore the Lion leaps each friend across on his back. But fierce beast-monsters called Kalidahs give chase. The Tin Woodman chops through the bridging tree behind them, therefore the snarling monsters crash into the gulf below.

Next they cross a deadly field of scarlet poppies whose scent brings endless sleep. Dorothy and the Lion sink down helpless, but the straw Scarecrow and tin man cannot sleep. Therefore they carry Dorothy out, and thousands of field mice haul the heavy Lion to safety.

At last the Emerald City glitters ahead. A gatekeeper locks green spectacles over every eye, therefore the whole city blazes brilliant emerald. One by one the Wizard agrees to see them, appearing to each traveler in a different, terrible shape.

To Dorothy the Wizard is a giant floating head; to the others a beast, a veiled lady, a ball of fire. But his price is the same for all: they may have their wishes only when they have killed the Wicked Witch of the West.

Heavy-hearted, they march into the witch's yellow country. She spies them with her single telescope eye, therefore she hurls wolves, wild crows, and black bees against them — But the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow destroy each attack in turn.

Enraged, the Witch calls on the Golden Cap that commands the Winged Monkeys. They smash the Tin Woodman and unstuff the Scarecrow and carry Dorothy off captive, but the silver shoes and the protecting kiss keep the girl herself from harm.

The Witch enslaves Dorothy and schemes to steal her silver shoes, therefore she trips her and snatches one. Furious, Dorothy hurls a bucket of water over her — and the Wicked Witch of the West melts away to nothing but a brown puddle.

The freed Winkie people mend the Tin Woodman and re-stuff the Scarecrow, therefore all four return in triumph to claim their reward. But when Toto knocks over a corner screen, the mighty Wizard is revealed as a small old man from Omaha.

For Dorothy the old man builds a balloon to sail them both back over the desert. But as he climbs aboard, the ropes snap early, therefore the Wizard drifts helplessly away alone, and Dorothy is left behind, still far from home.

The soldiers tell her of Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, who may know the way. Therefore the four friends set out again, past fighting trees, a fragile china country, and hammer-headed hills, until the Winged Monkeys lift them the last stretch.

Glinda, gentle and beautiful, listens to the whole tale. Then she reveals the secret Dorothy has carried all along: the silver shoes can bear their wearer anywhere in the world in three short steps. The power to go home was hers from the very first hour.

So Dorothy gives Glinda the Golden Cap and says her goodbyes. The Scarecrow will rule the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman the Winkies, the Lion the forest beasts. Then Dorothy clicks the silver heels three times, and the wind whirls her away.

She tumbles onto the Kansas grass, the silver shoes lost somewhere in the flight across the desert. Aunt Em runs out and gathers her close, therefore Dorothy is home at last, laughing again — with Toto safe and wriggling in her arms.

What it means

He confesses he is a humbug — a lost balloonist who has ruled by tricks. Still, he gives the Scarecrow bran for brains, the Tin Woodman a silk heart, and the Lion a courage-draught. And believing at last, each one becomes exactly what he wished.

Notice what Baum quietly did. The Scarecrow was always clever, the Woodman always tender, the Lion always brave; the Wizard granted nothing but permission to believe. What you seek so far from home, the story says, you have carried the whole way there.

🎧 Read-along audio is being prepared — text-only for now.