Over the rainbow. Waaaay over... Farm boy Donny Windham has two big problems: he's in the closet; and he's in love with his straight best friend! His solution? Run away from home to someplace he's not the only gay guy in a two hundred mile radius of his family's Kansas farm. Before he can leave, a tornado transports Donny and his little dog Toto to the magical Land of Oz where they encounter Lions and Tylers and Gay Bears - oh my! Donny makes new friends along the way including the scantily clad Good Warlock of the North, the sassy Scarecrow, the brokenhearted Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. Of course, there's the small matter of the Wicked Warlock of the West who'll stop at nothing to see Donny dead! On his fantastical journey down the Yellow Brick Road towards the Emerald City to meet the Wicked Hot Wizard of Oz, Donny discovers one important thing: There's no place like home, especially if it's with the man of his dreams.
"Where are you going?" Dorothy asked, offering them a handful of fresh-picked wild gooseberries. "Mama and I are going to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard of Oz to make me taller." Dorothy beamed at them. "That will be wonderful. If the Wizard of Oz can't make you taller, you can accompany the two of us to Kansas in the morning. I know that you'll grow taller there, because I'll feed you lots of delicious Kansas corn. It makes everyone grow tall." Fed up with being picked on for being short, Rosebud travels to the Emerald City with her mama to visit the Wizard of Oz—their plan is to ask the Wizard of Oz to make Rosebud taller. Along the way, they run into Dorothy and Toto. Dorothy suggests Rosebud accompany them on their trip to Kansas. When plans go haywire and Rosebud, instead of Dorothy, ends up in the Wizard's hot air balloon, the Wizard and Rosebud go with the flow and travel across many lands. As these two embark on their journey to Kansas, they encounter a set of trials and tribulations. Will they be able to save the doomed village of the colorful Teeny-taints? Can they escape the hideous, evil wizard who is trying to kill them? Will Rosebud make it to Kansas and get her wish to be taller and no longer be picked on? Find out in the exciting adventure of the Wizard of Oz...Where is He Now?
The Wicked Wizard of Oz is a brand new nightmarish gamebook - a multi-path book, very much in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, in which you choose the course of the story - inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, and the Dieselpunk aesthetic movement. Anybody who has read and played Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland will have a very clear idea of what to expect!
A 2021 Foreword INDIES Award Winner in Romance and Finalist in Fantasy A 2022 Benjamin Franklin Award Runner-Up in Best New Voice: Fiction “The heat and romance of the desert, the push and the pull of Emel’s desperation, and the magic and humanity of a caustic jinni make Daughter of the Salt King an irresistible ride.” —Amy Harmon, New York Times bestselling author “This riveting debut novel will leave readers eagerly awaiting Thornton’s future works.” —Booklist A girl of the desert and a jinni born long ago by the sea, both enslaved to the Salt King—but with this capricious magic, only one can be set free. As a daughter of the Salt King, Emel ought to be among the most powerful women in the desert. Instead, she and her sisters have less freedom than even her father's slaves . . . for the Salt King uses his own daughters to seduce visiting noblemen into becoming powerful allies by marriage. Escape from her father’s court seems impossible, and Emel dreams of a life where she can choose her fate. When members of a secret rebellion attack, Emel stumbles upon an alluring escape route: her father’s best-kept secret—a wish-granting jinni, Saalim. But in the land of the Salt King, wishes are never what they seem. Saalim’s magic is volatile. Emel could lose everything with a wish for her freedom as the rebellion intensifies around her. She soon finds herself playing a dangerous game that pits dreams against responsibility and love against the promise of freedom. As she finds herself drawn to the jinni for more than his magic, captivated by both him and the world he shows her outside her desert village, she has to decide if freedom is worth the loss of her family, her home and Saalim, the only man she’s ever loved. For readers who enjoy epic desert fantasies and forbidden romance like The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury, The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh, and Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri.
A celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie musical, this new book The Wizard of Oz offers a rare glimpse into the creation of the classic film, its creator L. Frank Baum, the Academy Award-winning score, the leading lady, and the Oz phenomenon that continues to captivate the world.Although Oz creator L. Frank Baum died twenty years prior to the release of MGM's celebrated film, his fascinating career and story, as told in this new book, will surprise even the most devoted Oz fans. Prior to MGM's 1939 release of the movie, Baum's book was featured as a Broadway musical, with songs by the justifiably forgotten Fred R. Hamlin, and two bizarre silent movies. The enduring appeal and lasting influence of The Wizard of Oz are discussed in a special chapter by creator's great-grandson Roger Baum.The Wizard of Oz will lead the reader down the proverbial yellow brick road to discover:The seven flawless decisions MGM made to adapt Baum's sprawling children's book into a movie musical.The groundbreaking moviemaking techniques, MGM's second full-length Technicolor film.The surprising story behind Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's superlative score, which includes "Over the Rainbow," considered the greatest movie song of all time.How Judy Garland won "Dorothy," her most enduring role, after 20th Century Fox refused to loan Shirley Temple to MGM.The birth of film's greatest canine star, Cairn Terrier, Terry, as Dorothy's little dog "Toto".The many everyday Oz expressions that come from the most oft-quoted movie of all timeHow the Wicked Witch of the West (renamed her Elphaba after Oz creator's initials) was remade "for good" in Broadway's Oz prequel Wicked.This celebration of the iconic film is a must-have for all Wizard of Oz lovers.
In the first of L. Frank Baum's time-honored Oz novels, country girl Dorothy Gale gets whisked away by a cyclone to the fantastical Land of Oz. Dropped into the midst of trouble when her farmhouse crushes a tyrannical sorceress, Dorothy incurs the wrath of the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy is desperate to return to her native Kansas, and, aided by the Good Witch of the North, she sets out for the Emerald City to get help from the legendary Wizard. On her way, she meets three unlikely allies who embody key human virtues—the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion.
The New York Times bestseller and basis for the Tony-winning hit musical, soon to be a major motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande With millions of copies in print around the world, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked is established not only as a commentary on our time but as a novel to revisit for years to come. Wicked relishes the inspired inventions of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, while playing sleight of hand with our collective memories of the 1939 MGM film starring Margaret Hamilton (and Judy Garland). In this fast-paced, fantastically real, and supremely entertaining novel, Maguire has populated the largely unknown world of Oz with the power of his own imagination. Years before Dorothy and her dog crash-land, another little girl makes her presence known in Oz. This girl, Elphaba, is born with emerald-green skin—no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. Still, Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters Shiz University, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz’s most promising young citizens. But Elphaba’s Oz is no utopia. The Wizard’s secret police are everywhere. Animals—those creatures with voices, souls, and minds—are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals—even if it means combating the mysterious Wizard, even if it means risking her single chance at romance. Ever wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can find herself grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas. Recognized as an iconoclastic tour de force on its initial publication, the novel has inspired the blockbuster musical of the same name—one of the longest-running plays in Broadway history. Popular, indeed. But while the novel’s distant cousins hail from the traditions of magical realism, mythopoeic fantasy, and sprawling nineteenth-century sagas of moral urgency, Maguire’s Wicked is as unique as its green-skinned witch.
Who HQ brings you the stories behind the most beloved characters of our time. We're off to see the Wizard...along with Dorothy, Toto, and all of her friends as they make their way onto the What Is the Story of? list. When L. Frank Baum wrote about the adventures of a young farm girl named Dorothy and her pet dog in the magical Land of Oz in 1900, he wanted to create a beautiful story based on the America he knew and treasured. But he had no idea his book would become a bestseller and grow into the cultural phenomenon that it is today. After the iconic 1939 film, numerous sequels, retellings, and musicals, it's easy to see why The Wizard of Oz has been called "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale." From Baum's first book through Wicked, the story of The Wizard of Oz is as fascinating as the tale itself.
Join circus stuntman Oscar Diggs as he goes up in his balloon and is blown all the way to Oz at the time when both wicked witches are still alive an??? kicking! The people of Oz mistake Oscar for a might??? wizard and, ever the showman, Oscar plays along. I??? one sidesplitting, suspenseful scene after anothe??? Oscar becomes the ruler of Oz, builds the Yellow Bric??? Road and fights off the wicked witches. Staying on jump ahead of two wicked witches is no easy feat bu??? Oscar's wit and bag of tricks help him carry the day Filled with suspense, How the Wizard Came to O??? is sure to keep readers turning pages right to the en??? With over 30 black-and-white pictu
Forget everything you know about Oz, Dorothy, and that notorious little dog.Legends have swirled around the mystical land of Oz, immortalized in countless tales and tunes, each claiming to unveil the real saga behind the yellow brick road. Yet, none have even grazed the truth.The upheaval began with my father, the king of Oz, announcing his retirement. Unsure which of his four daughters should inherit the crown, he devised a trial of leadership: dividing the kingdom into quadrants for each princess to govern and prove her worth.My sisters ruled over the North, South, and West with grace, but I-Indy to those who know me-was saddled with the East. Yes, that's Munchkin Land. And just when I thought it couldn't get worse, a braided girl from Kansas started flinging houses, commandeering my favorite shoes, and terrorizing my Munchkin subjects.As passions flare and alliances form, my journey is not just about reclaiming my territory-it's also a quest filled with forbidden romances and fiery encounters. With everything on the line, I must not only save my kingdom but also protect the hearts that beat together in its defense.Scarecrow: Tales from Oz offers a bold, adult spin on the fabled journey to Oz. Prepare for four triumphant finales, sizzling connections, and one unforgettable adventure.
