The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Robert Ingpen’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz feels like a rediscovery of a story we all think we know. His illustrations pull the reader back into the raw, original fairy tale — stranger, darker, and far more human than the film made it seem. The familiar yellow brick road turns here into a winding, textured path through an unpredictable land, full of real wind, dust, and shadows.

Ingpen doesn’t decorate the book — he builds its world. His Dorothy isn’t a polished movie heroine but a small, determined girl caught between two realities. The Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Lion look weary and kind, as if they’ve been walking far longer than one book allows. Every page feels like an echo of Baum’s restless imagination: the sense that wonder is never comfortable, and courage comes quietly, one step at a time.

This edition reminds us that The Wizard of Oz was always more than a cheerful adventure. It’s about friendship, fear, and the strange wisdom of those who admit their weaknesses. Ingpen’s drawings, soft and precise, bring back that fragile balance — the mix of dream and dust, of hope and homecoming — that makes Oz timeless.