Sometimes I wonder if it's really worth the time and effort of writing up blog posts about my rereading of the Oz books aloud. In many of these case, I reread the review I wrote when I read them aloud to Kid One (then three) and realize that everything I'd have to say about reading it aloud to Kids One and Two (now eight and five) is basically the same. But the blog needs content!
The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum |
 |
| Originally published: 1909 Acquired and previously read: September 2021 Reread aloud: August 2026 |
The Road to Oz is a good example. It has never been a favorite because it's aimless, but as my previous review notes, "if you're reading one or two chapters aloud a day, that something is episodic isn't a bug... it's a feature! The book becomes a succession of short stories." Both kids were pretty into this, there are lots of fun incidents.
As last time, Button-Bright was a particularly big hit; the kids both loved his constant refrain of "don't know" (Kid Two: "I think he comes from Don't Know Land!") and were delighted by his fearful cry of "Don't want to be soup!" Definitely as an adult you might wonder why so much of Oz books four through six has to be checking in on characters from previous Oz books, but the kids are so happy when Jack Pumpkinhead, Billina, and so on make return appearances, and Baum is actually pretty careful to iterate these characters: we learn about Jack's new residence and Billina's new chicks. (Though my kids already knew about the new chicks from Nome King's Shadow... though that book seems to have a continuity error, as Billina in this book has no chicks named "Daniel" yet, just "Dorothy.")
Similarly, the kids had good fun with the parade of characters from Baum's non-Oz fantasies who attend Ozma's birthday party at the end. Kid One did vaguely remember Para Bruin from John Dough and the Cherub, but it's been so long since we read all the others, these were long forgotten. We might reread The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus around Christmas, since Kid Two was very into the appearance of Santa Claus in this one—he reported it as his favorite part of the book. (His least favorite part: he called the cities of foxes and donkeys "scary"; I don't know why them and not the Scoodlers!)
It remains a disappointment to me that this one has no color plates, though Kid Two was very into the changing color pages. (Kid One criticized the choice of colors.) I also feel that the linework of the black-and-white illustrations was pretty muddy, making it hard to discern details. I don't know if this is an issue with the original illustrations or their reproduction in my Books of Wonder facsimile.
No comments:
Post a Comment