About this story
The road home is paved yellow and walked in company: a scarecrow after brains, a tin man after a heart, a lion after nerve. Baum set out in 1900 to give America a fairy tale of its own, wonder in, nightmares out. You are Dorothy — and in this telling Toto, who has opinions, finally talks back.
Who you’ll meet
Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion and Toto — the reader is Dorothy, so she is the one who stays off camera.
How it opens
The glass beside the door had been falling since before breakfast.
Uncle Henry had read it twice already and said nothing either time.
Aunt EmThe hens have gone quiet. They were not quiet an hour ago.
Uncle HenryThe cattle are at the south fence with their backs to the north.
They feel it before we do.
So do I. Nobody asks me, either.