Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.
Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.
Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.
L. Frank Baum
Chicago, April, 1900.
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Chapter 2. The Council with the Munchkins
Chapter 3. How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow
Chapter 4. The Road Through the Forest
Chapter 5. The Rescue of the Tin Woodman
Chapter 7. The Journey to the Great Oz
Chapter 8. The Deadly Poppy Field
Chapter 9. The Queen of the Field Mice
Chapter 10. The Guardian of the Gate
Chapter 11. The Wonderful City of Oz
Chapter 12. The Search for the Wicked Witch
Chapter 14. The Winged Monkeys
Chapter 15. The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible
Chapter 16. The Magic Art of the Great Humbug
Chapter 17. How the Balloon Was Launched
Chapter 19. Attacked by the Fighting Trees
Chapter 20. The Dainty China Country
Chapter 21. The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts
Chapter 22. The Country of the Quadlings