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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marandahir" data-source="post: 8069985" data-attributes="member: 6803643">No, no, it IS a children's story, the same way the stories collected in Grimm's Fairy Tales or works by Hans Christen Andersen are.They just accept that children can handle themes that children's stories these days tend to aschew. These are stories with lessons about the darkness of the world around us, and the challenges of growing up (scary people who you can actually trust, 'friendly' and 'pretty' people who are actually perilous, etc).Also note that Baum himself started changing characterizations over the course of the series as he realised some of it was way too dark. For example, in The Land of Oz, the Wizard sells out Ozma to Mombi, and is seen much less a harmless humbug and much more a dangerous and cruel politician out for his own good. But by Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, he's fully transfigured into the harmless and friendly circusman who's caught up with Dorothy on a journey to the center of the Earth and back again into Oz, and Ozma treats him as such as well.The Tin Woodsman, as some have pointed out above, is a similarly Disneyficated character over the course of the series. Even Ruggedo the Red, the Nome King, goes from being essentially the Satan masquerading as Santa to being a minor inconvenience by the later books.My father has always thought the later introductions like the Woggle-Bug and the Shaggy Man of Oz were horrible horrible characters while earlier ones like Jack and Tipp/Ozma etc were much better creations. Though he is a fan of the Patchwork Girl, too. He grew up on these books and has a 1st edition collection of all the Baum ones and some of the Thompson ones and Neil ones too!</blockquote>

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