Baum wrote it, by his own account in the introduction, to give children wonder without the "heartaches and nightmares" of the old fairy tales, and the opening chapter proves it: a grey Kansas farmhouse, a cyclone cellar, and Dorothy waiting for something to happen. The plain, steady prose makes it an easy first long story to follow aloud.
Chapters
A long one: read it a chapter a night.
- Chapter I The Cyclone
- Chapter II The Council with the Munchkins
- Chapter III How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow
- Chapter IV The Road Through the Forest
- Chapter V The Rescue of the Tin Woodman
- Chapter VI The Cowardly Lion
- Chapter VII The Journey to the Great Oz
- Chapter VIII The Deadly Poppy Field
- Chapter IX The Queen of the Field Mice
- Chapter X The Guardian of the Gate
- Chapter XI The Wonderful City of Oz
- Chapter XII The Search for the Wicked Witch
- Chapter XIII The Rescue
- Chapter XIV The Winged Monkeys
- Chapter XV The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible
- Chapter XVI The Magic Art of the Great Humbug
- Chapter XVII How the Balloon Was Launched
- Chapter XVIII Away to the South
- Chapter XIX Attacked by the Fighting Trees
- Chapter XX The Dainty China Country
- Chapter XXI The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts
- Chapter XXII The Country of the Quadlings
- Chapter XXIII Glinda The Good Witch Grants Dorothy’s Wish
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