How the Wizard Came to Oz

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but unnecessary
Review: As much as I love the Oz books, it's great to know that even today writers continue to go back to Baum's wonderful world and try to build and expand upon it. That said, this book, "How the Wizard Came to Oz," is a nice enough entry but doesn't feel all that necessary.

The book tells, as the title implies, the story of how Oscar Zoroaster went from being a carnival man in America to the Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz. It tells of his early encounters with the Wicked Witches of both the East and the West, how people in the Emerald City came to wear green spectacles and fills in a lot of other gaps in the first book.

But some of the things Abbott delves into in this book feel kind of superfluous. Cameos by all three of Dorothy's original companions -- the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Woodman -- add nothing to the story and seem to be pure padding. Other things, like a quick joke referring to the classic MGM film, just distract you from Baum's Oz and jerk you out into the real world where you've seen Judy Garland deliver this joke a thousand times in a thousand re-watchings of the movie.

It's a decent book if you're an Ozophile and want to get everything worth getting, but for the casual reader, if you take a pass you'll have nothing to regret.

Rating:
Summary: A WIZ of a book!
Review: In this prequel to 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' by Baum, Donald Abbott writes the story of how Oscar Zoraster becomes the great and terrible Wizard of Oz. I don't want to reveal everything because I would ruin the book but we find out how the Wicked Witch of the West came into possession of the Winged Monkeys, we learn the origins of the Yellow Brick Road, and the mysterious powers of the magical Silver Shoes. The Wicked Witch of the East also plays a major role in the story. The book is incredible and all though it may contradict some of the Oz stories by Baum it remains pretty faithful and seems to answer a lot of puzzling questions from the official Oz books. You won't be disappointed with Abbott's wonderful illustrations for the book which are followed in the footsteps of W.W. Denslow(original illustrator for 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'). I recommend EVERYONE to read this book*

Rating:
Summary: An story about Oz before Dorothy went there.
Review: This is a story about how the wizard came to Oz. Oscar Zoraster is a ventriloquist and hot air balloon flyer at a circus, but he gets blown to Oz while floating in his balloon. It describes the history of both wicked witches, the yellow brick road, and the Emerald City. Donald Abbbot follows W. W. Denslow's style of illustrations (W. W. Denslow made the pictures for L. Frank Baum's _The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz_). This is a great book if you have read _The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz_. -Joe Hansis