I saw the movie long before I ever read the book. And then one Christmas my parents gifted me a beautiful hardcover of The Wizard of Oz. At the time it seemed such a huge book to read. Looking at it now (unfortunately not the same beautiful hardcover; I stupidly let someone borrow it and never got it returned. I found the same edition--I think, though the cover art seems different--at King's English and brought it home with me. I have a paperback Del Rey that I'll loan out if someone wants to read it.) it is a slim volume and takes just a day or two to read.
My dad, a teacher, often came home with oodles of Christmas treats from his students to show their appreciation for him. Among those goodies were jelly beans. While reading my beautiful new book I would eat jelly beans. The green ones particularly--every time I read the word "emerald", "green", or "Emerald city" I gleefully popped a green jelly bean in my mouth.
I've left behind Never Land for the next Great Adventure, but I'll never forget this story that was so important in my childhood. I'm still waiting for someone who also shares my passion for this story to bring it to the big screen as it was meant to be seen: silver slippers rather than ruby slippers, the many deterrents the Wicked Witch of the West sent to stop Dorothy from reaching her domain, Dainty China Country (or was that in the third book? I can't remember!).
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