The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

A passage from the original

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife.

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Project Gutenberg · Source of the English excerpt

Why try this book in English?

Dorothy wants to get home. That simple goal gives you a thread to follow even when a description introduces unfamiliar words. The journey moves from one encounter to the next, so it is often possible to recover the meaning from what the characters do.

The original is still a novel written for native speakers. Descriptions of the Kansas house, the landscape and unfamiliar creatures bring words you may not meet in everyday conversation. “A children’s book” does not automatically mean “a beginner’s book.”

What to pay attention to

A clear plot, with occasional old-fashioned words

• Look for the main action before translating every object in a description.
• Repeated dialogue makes it easier to learn how the characters ask for help and explain their plans.
• The opening sentence uses two “who” clauses. Follow the family relationships first: Uncle Henry is a farmer; Aunt Em is his wife.

This is the original, not an adaptation with an official CEFR level. Judge the difficulty from a sample and the opening pages.

How to start reading

Read the opening pages and retell who Dorothy lives with and what her home is like. If you can do that with a few hints, keep going. If every sentence needs a full translation, try an adapted story first and return to this original later.

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