The Wizard of Oz

L. Frank Baum set out to write a modern fairy tale with wonder and adventure but without the grimness of older European stories, and more than a century later the results still deliver. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion remain among the most beloved characters in American children's literature, and the story's enduring insight — that the companions already possessed what they sought — lands as gently and truly as ever. The 1993 Tor Classics reprint adds Jane Yolen's afterword but no new illustrations, so it is a straightforward text edition rather than a specially produced one. Some faith communities have historically noted concerns about witch imagery; that is worth knowing, though the tone is purely whimsical. A genuine classic.