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The Road To Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, And Triumphs In The Life Of L. Frank Baum (2008)

by Kathleen Krull(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0375832165 (ISBN13: 9780375832161)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

review 1: I am a Wizard of Oz lover, the book series much more than the movie. Whenever I come across a biography of Baum I am sure to pick it up, so I was very excited when I came across this book on Goodreads when I searched for Baum.However, I never actually looked at the description of the book so I did not realize it was a children's book. I was a little disappointed when it finally came to my library and I picked it up and it wasn't what I was expecting.I did read the book, and it was an excellent children's biography. It gave a lot of great information, and I even picked up a few facts I had not known about before.
review 2: Fascinating picture book biography of L. Frank Baum. I didn't know any of his life story: his many failed business attempts, the fact that he... more didn't publish "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" until he was age 44 with four children, or how he tried to combine writing with EVERY business venture he tried (even raising chickens). The optimist in me loves that he kept his imaginative life lively throughout his hardships, and that the book which brought him success is the one that drew upon his loves and experiences (imagining live scarecrows as a child; seeing Chicago's White City as an adult; building a metal man as a window decorator; perfecting his skills as an oral storyteller in front of the neighborhood children). The academic in me loves that he wrote something for children that hadn't been done before -- "a beautifully illustrated, original American novel written to amuse children. There was nothing else like it." Includes a Storyteller's Note, Sources, and list of some of Baum's books. Favorite quotes:"Everything was alive to him, even objects." "Always his goal was to stimulate daydreams. 'The imaginative child,' he wrote, 'will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent, and therefore to foster civilization.'" less

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