YA Book Tour- Kansas

So I skipped over a few states and followed the yellow brick road to Kansas for L. Frank Baum's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

This is a story that we all know and love, because who really has never seen the Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland. Since pretty much everyone knows the story, I won't bore you with the usually synopsis.

I will say that Mr. Baum's writing style reminds me a lot of Lewis Carroll's style in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  The book itself seems targeted to a younger audience than the rest of the YA books on the list, but that may because it is not as recent a book as the rest of the list.

I tell you what, the description of Kansas is not a winning endorsement for moving there. Mr. Baum describes the landscape as grey, the buildings as grey, and even the people are looking grey. Plus you never know when a tornado is going to come around and carry your house off to Oz.

The way Dorothy is describe has me picturing her as younger than Judy Garland's 16 years in the movie.  She and others constantly call her a little girl, which has me thinking no older than like 12.

You do get a little more of a back story to Dorothy's companions than the movie, and they meet more characters along the way. While the extra characters aren't in the movie, some do make appearance and have large roles in Gregory Maguire's Wicked (and also the musical) like Boq.

I think the biggest disappointment for me, was the ruby slippers are not actually ruby in the book, but rather they are silver slippers.  Which if you think about it, are much more practical, fashion wise they well match many more outfits.

Currently Reading:
Arise
by Tara Hudson