There's no place like home.

"No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."- Dorothy

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of the most widely beloved and well known stories in modern American culture. I have loved this story since I was a child because of watching the fantastic 1939 film adaptation staring Judy Garland. I had never taken the time to actually read the original novel, but it made my top 100 list. The book was short and sweet, but surprisingly very different from the movie that I love so dearly. The basic gist of the story is the same, but there are numerous changes that were made for the movie version most likely for the sake of time and continuity. There are way too many characters, obstacles, and journeys in the novel to fit into a brief movie unless someone wanted to make it into a Lord of the Rings type epic film. I would say anyone who is a fan of the movie but has not read the novel should take a little time to read it and draw their own comparisons. I made a list of all the things I remember being different in the novel from the movie.

“Oh, I see;" said the Tin Woodman. "But, after all, brains are not the best things in the world."
“Have you any?" enquired the Scarecrow.
No, my head is quite empty," answered the Woodman; "but once I had brains, and a heart also; so, having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart.”

First some fun facts!!

The “L” in L. Frank Baum stands for Lyman.

Baum wrote 14 total Oz books

The original book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was published in 1900.

Baum had 4 sons and no daughters; the character of Dorothy Gale was inspired by his niece Dorothy Gage who died in infancy.

The title was first shortened to simply, “The Wizard of Oz” for the 1902 stage version.

MGM changed the magic slippers from sliver as they are in the original novel to ruby red because they wanted to take full advantage of the new Technicolor that was being used to shoot the 1939 film.

“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?”- The Scarecrow

Differences between the book and the movie:

Glinda is not the Good Witch of the North, but the Good Witch of the South in the original novel. The Good Witch of the North is said to be a little old lady who only appears at the beginning of the story.

The shoes owned by the Wicked Witch of the East and given to Dorothy by the Good Witch of the North are silver and not ruby red.

Dorothy and Toto are given food and a place to sleep by a Munchkin named Boq at the beginning of the journey who explains to Dorothy more about the rulers of the land of Oz.

The Tinman is never called the Tinman in the book, but is instead referred to as the Tin Woodman. His real name was Nick Chopper before his ax was cursed by the Wicked Witch of the East and systematically chopped off all of his extremities and eventually cut through his heart. He had each limb replaced with a tin version by a blacksmith until he was completely made of tin.

Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the cowardly Lion are chased by terribly Kalidah monsters, and forced to ford a raging river on their quest to the Yellow Brick Road.

They are helped out of the Deadly Poppies by the Queen of the field mice and her servants.

Once they reach the Emerald City the man at the huge entrance gate forces them to wear green glasses to protect their eyes from the brightness. It is later revealed that the Emerald City is not truly Emerald but only appears that way through the green glasses.

The Wizard of Oz actually takes off the Scarecrow’s head and stuffs it with pins and needles so that he will be “sharp” instead of giving him a diploma that says he is smart.

He gives the Tin Woodman a soft heart filled with sawdust by cutting out a piece of his metal chest, placing it inside, and then patching over the cut out.

To give the Cowardly Lion courage he pours out a green liquid into a bowl and has the Lion drink it, “liquid courage” he calls it.

The winged monkeys are not the pets of the Wicked Witch of the West, but are enslaved to her for 3 favors because of a magic Golden Cap she possesses.

The Wicked Witch of the West also does nothing to stop Dorothy from reaching the Emerald City with her sister’s slippers. It is not until the Wizard of Oz sends Dorothy and her companions to the West to kill her that the Witch sends out her wolves, crows, bees, soldiers (the Winkies) and the winged monkeys to stop them.

The Witch of the West takes one of the Silver slippers from Dorothy and then Dorothy grabs a bucket of water to throw at her in anger, and not to put out a fire as in the movie.

Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion have to find where the Winged Monkeys left the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman during the attack and repair them before they can return to the Emerald city.

After the Wizard of Oz leaves in his hot air balloon without Dorothy by mistake the Scarecrow is left in charge of the Emerald City.

Dorothy and her companions have to travel to the South to see Glinda and find a way for Dorothy to get home to Kansas. Glinda tells Dorothy that all she has to do to get home is use the Silver slippers and wish for where she wants to go.

On the dangerous journey South they encounter fighting trees, Hammer-Heads on a rock covered mountain, a giant spider, and a country made of delicate china people.

The Tin Woodman is appointed to rule over the Witch of the West’s former slaves, the Winkies.

The Cowardly Lion is chosen to rule over all the creatures of the forest as King of the beasts.

When Dorothy returns to Kansas the old house is not there, but Uncle Henry and Aunt Em have built a new one. There is no mention of Dorothy’s experience beings a dream or her hitting her head in the tornado. 

"Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.”- The Wizard of OZ

5 down 95 to go!

Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen

This book was good, but not great for me so I won't pay it the same respect in summarizing as say To Kill a Mockingbird deserved. I had not seen the movie version prior to reading the book, so that did not contribute to my opinion. I have to admit though, that I had seen enough of the movie's previews to have this constant picture of the weird kid from the Twilight movies (read Robert Pattinson) in my mind as Jacob Jankowski that I definitely could have done without while I was reading.

So anyways...the book follows the story of Jacob Jankowski looking back on his life at age 23 as either a 90 or 93 year old man in a nursing home; he can't remember his exact age. When the story begins Jacob is preparing to take is final exams in his last semester in Veterinary school at Cornell. He is called from his class and given the devastating news that his parents have both been killed in a car crash. He travels back to his home only to find that his father, who was also a veterinarian, had taken out loans and mortgaged their family home to pay for his college tuition. His father had also been accepting payment in goods and livestock from his rural clients in order to continue caring for any sick animal that was brought to him and had thus fallen behind on payments. Jacob is told that everything his parents had in their home or in the veterinary practice is now the bank's property leaving him penniless and alone.

He tries to return to Cornell to complete his exams and graduate, but the stress of the circumstances are too great. He runs away following the course of the nearby train tracks just to escape it all. After wandering too far away from town he decides his best option is to jump on one of the open cars of a passing train. When the train stops the next day Jacob finds out that he is aboard the "Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth" circus train. One of the circus workers help Jacob get a job shoveling manure, but once the circus owner, Uncle Al, and the head animal trainer, August, discover that Jacob is a Cornell educated veterinarian they hire him on to take care of the animals. The major conflict of the story arises when Jacob falls in love with the wildly uneven tempered and paranoid schizophrenic August's wife, Marlena. Marlena is the circus' star performer with her Arabian horses. The story is very predictable (again this could possibly be because of all the movie previews I saw) but still had its enjoyable parts. Taking a look back into the history of depression era circuses and even just life in general as a performer or someone who was different in this time period is a thought provoking concept. The animals of the circus were treated poorly, but even more disturbing was the way the sideshow "freaks" were treated by the people who effectively owned them and the people they were displayed in front of at each showing.

By far the most interesting character, and in some ways the hero of the story, is Rosie the elephant. She is acquired by the Benzini Brothers circus after another rival show is forced to close. The trainers and especially August think that Rosie is dumb and untrainable because she refuses to follow his commands. Marlena is even injured when Uncle Al tries to force Rosie into the show before she is ready to perform. Eventually is it Jacob who discovers that Rosie is, in fact, very intelligent, but she only knows commands in Polish. (How convenient then that he is Jacob Jankowski and not Jacob Garcia! lol) The funniest scene in the book comes when the roustabouts discover that Rosie is removing the wooden stake from the ground that is supposed to keep her in place, walking over to the concessions tent, drinking all of the lemonade before the crowds arrive, and then replacing herself in the original position stake and all without being caught while the rousabouts get the blame for the stolen lemonade.

          In the end Jacob considers leaving the show for a more conventional life and a traditional practice, but he decides that it is the circus life for him to the last. The book was good; I guess it definitely had its high points. It is very clear that Sara Gruen put a vast amount of effort into researching the time period and circus life. It was a fast, easy read so I would still recommend it.

Another book off the list! 96 to go!