Author: Ben Caldwell
Reading level: Ages 10 and up
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Sterling Children’s Books; Elibron Classics series edition
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Our Score: 3 out of 5 stars
There is never a shortage of new content for “The Wizard of Oz“. L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz back in 1900. Sterling Children’s Books’ is behind the new release in their fourth All-Action Classics installment with “The Wizard of Oz”. It is presented in the form of a graphic novel! I was not a mega fan of the animation style but it is bright and colorful and will sure to excite kids. I have to give some credit to this take on L. Frank Baum’s classic fantasy, it is a unique retelling of this great story. Fans of “The Wizard of Oz” will definitely eat this up, at least until next year’s “Oz, The Great and Powerful” by Sam Raimi.
The author that adapted this book is Ben Caldwell, who is a former Marvel comic artist. He tries his best to captures the charm of Baum’s work. I just wasn’t a majot fan of his depiction of Dorothy and the Munchkins. The book is a decent quick read though and most importantly it was very simple for kids to jump right into. Caldwell also worked with Sterling on their first three adaptations as well in the All-Action Classics series like “Dracula”, “Tom Sawyer” and “The Odyssey”. I am curious to see what Sterling is going to be coming up with next.