The Wizard of Oz

THE WIZARD OF OZ
L.FRANK BAUM Illustrated by Michael Hague.

For some time now, images of childhood tales and books have been visiting my mind. Oh! How I used to love the magical fairies, brownies, pixies and others of the world created by Enid Blyton. A sudden urge to revisit them led me to search the internet for e-books of the same. Not finding any free versions, I looked up our library for copies. Surprisingly, they had not a single copy. Strange that, what I thought were the most popular children books, do not find shelf space in one of the biggest libraries of the Bay Area. Still wanting some magic in my life, I started searching for other children’s books and fairy tales hoping that a familiar name would pop up and evoke long lost happy memories. This was when, amongst others, “The Wizard of Oz”, came up on a screen.

“Yes, I have read this”, I said. The name was so familiar, The Wizard of Oz. Trying to concentrate, in order to extract some images of the book, I closed my eyes. And there appeared an image of a scarecrow and some obscure magical lands and castles. Now, I knew for sure, I had been there. And then I decided, I would revisit it to claim my magical experiences back.

The next two days passed without event. A few more failed attempts at trying to get online, my favorite “Magic Faraway Tree” of Enid Blyton fame, only helped by making me want to reach magical lands once again. So, yesterday when I finally was in the library, I headed to the children’s section. Here they were. A line of titles ending themselves in “…..Of Oz”. And I thought there was only one book. Must have been at least 10 books forming the OZ series. But having made up my mind to meet my childhood acquaintance, I looked for “The Wizard of Oz”. Finally I found it. A strange sense of excitement swept over me as I reached out for it, the kind one would feel when one is about to meet a best friend from childhood after 20 years. I looked at the cover and there from the cover looked back at me, a Scarecrow, the image of whom had flashed past my mind when I searched for my past as a child. A sense of glee. And then there were others. A tin man, a young girl, a lion and a small black dog. Yes, I had known them all. I had been with them, traveled with them. And now, I was going to do that again. I carefully stacked the yellow and green book in my blue library basket. Over the next few minutes, a few more titles, more adult and more appropriate for my age, joined ranks with my childhood friend.

Once back home, it didn’t take me long to settle down on my good old couch with my Book. Oh! I was so ready to leave this world behind and be whisked away like Dorothy in this book, to another magical one. So I turned the cover to the first page.

Here, L.Frank Baum wrote …….the story of “The Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out”

I traveled through the book with Dorothy, who gets blown away in a cyclone with her dog Toto, to a magical land of Oz. Beautiful as much as it is in comparison to her dreary home, she longs to get back. She meets kind witches and wizards there but alas! No one knows the way back. She is directed to meet the Wizard of Oz who lives in a distant land. In hope that he might help her find her way back home, she bravely starts her journey through this magical land. On her way she rescues those who would be her friends as long as she will be in this land, the Scarecrow, Tinwoodman and the lion. They join her in the journey, each in order to find something they so strongly wish to possess. The story is about their adventures throughout the journey and the efforts they make to achieve what they wish for. They meet people from different lands, the Munchkins, the Winkies, the Quadlings, the mice, the winged monkeys and others. Each encounter shows how they overcome obstacles and carry on their journey. In the end, each one does get what they started out to get. So a happy ending.

The vivid illustrations by Michael Hague made the book come to life as the images sprang up between words creating landscapes and moments. I had spent 3 hours in The Land of Oz and it was now time to return back to my land. With a smile on my lips, I closed the cover of the book and tried to reflect back through my journey. My main reflection was the beauty and simplicity with which the book had given the message that what one looks for thinking one lacks, is to be found in oneself. We think we lack something and we keep searching for it far and near. But it is to be found only in oneself. As a child, maybe I had just enjoyed the story about this magical world. But today, as an adult, the book not only gave me moments of a child’s joy but subtly grew as a realization within …...
“The Land of Magic, The Land of Oz, is within us. What we look for, we find in ourselves alone.”