Friends of Montclair Library

With “Oz the Great and Powerful” tearing it up at the box office, you may be thinking of revisiting the classic Oz tales.

In the Children’s section of the Montclair Library you’ll find some of L. Frank Baum’s many books, like the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (also available on CD) and Tik-Tok of Oz. The Oz world has also inspired numerous spin-offs, including Elisa Primavera’s mystery The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls, Avi’s mystery Who Stole the Wizard of Oz? and the graphic novels by Eric Shanower like Adventures in Oz. And, of course, there’s the classic movie version.

For background information, check out Allen Eyles’ The World of Oz, or Kathleen Krull’s biography of Baum, The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum.

For adults, of course, there are Gregory Maguire’s Oz backstories like Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.