10.30.06
L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz: Eleventh Post (Final Thoughts)
It is clear that Rogers appreciates Baum’s talent as a writer and a storyteller. She points out many of his books’ best qualities - the inventive characters, the pointed and perceptive comments they make about people and society and Baum’s wonderful way of speaking to his child audiences at their level rather than at them or from above them, just to name a few. She has trouble recognizing the merits in any of the later books (which aren’t as good, but are still decent), and her hatred of the 1939 movie seems a bit excessive for this book. It wasn’t the best note to end an otherwise very interesting book on. She should have come back to Baum at the end, since the book was about him!