Book Talk: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Modern Fantasy: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Title: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz                                                                 

Author/illustrator: L. Frank Baum and 

W.W Denslow

Publication Date: May 17, 1900

Number of Pages: 100                                                    

Artistic Medium: Drawing: pencil, pen and ink, crayon, chalk

Artistic Style: Expressionism
 Age Range: Grades 2-5

Plot Summary: When a tornado rises through Kansa and suddenly takes Dorothy and her pet dog, ToTo, to a place called Munchkinland, she is forced to travel to the land of Oz in the Emerald City. The Great Wizard is the only person who can help her get back home. Glinda the good witch gives Dorothy sliver slippers at the start of her journey. Along the yellow brick road, Dorothy and ToTo meet a brainless scarecrow,  a heartless tin man, and a cowardly lion. Together they travel through the forest, a deadly poppy field, and fight the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying Monkeys. The powerful wizard will not help Dorothy and her friends until the Wicked Witch is defeated. Towards the end, Dorothy throws a pail of water on the witch, melting her. With the witch gone, Dorothy returns to Oz to receive her request. The wizard apologizes and confesses he is actually not powerful at all, but plans to put Dorothy on a ballon to return to Kansas. She misses the balloon and must find another way home. Glinda the Good witch appears and tells her the slippers possessed the power to get home all along. After kissing her friends goodbye, Dorothy clicked her heels three times and she was back in Kansas. 

This story is an important one to include into the classroom curriculum because it teaches students about friendship, and the ideas of good vs evil. 

Content Area:

21) Relate character experiences to personal experiences in a guided drama experience.

• Students learn better when they can relate what they're learning to real life.
• After reading this story to the class as a whole, we would fist determine (in our own words) what the moral or central idea is.
• We would then come up with situations that could happen to us. How could we solve this issue (if there is one)?