The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children’s fantasy novel by L. Frank Baum, first published in 1900. It was an immediate success and became the first book in the Oz series.

The story follows Dorothy Gale and her adventures in the Land of Oz. Dorothy is a young orphan from Kansas who lives with Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and her dog Toto.

One day a cyclone carries Dorothy’s house away and deposits it in the Land of Oz. The house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, and Dorothy meets the Good Witch of the North.

Dorothy then begins a journey home to Kansas. She follows the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City, hoping that the Wizard of Oz can help her return.

"Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room; and this room contained a rusty looking cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner, and Dorothy a little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellar—except a small hole dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole."