I haven’t read this in decades. It still works. :)
I was a little surprised at the fairy tale qualities that I didn’t remember from childhood, but even so, they were less Fairy-Tale-Weird than most, er, non-invented? fairy tales. I mean, fairy tales make no sense at all in terms of “Oh hey, a glass mountain, oh look, a magic flying saddle appears to help me climb it!” Right, but, er, why did the magic flying saddle appear at all? Where did it come from?
This makes slightly more sense and is slightly better supported than that. :) But it has more fairy tale qualities than I remembered.
I’d also just flat-out forgotten that Dorothy is a much younger girl in the book than in the movie, which made me think about what the movie would’ve been like if Shirley Temple (6 years Judy Garland’s minor and the originally-intended star of that film) had been cast, which has nothing to do with the books, but nevermind that. :)
Anyway, it’s still charming, and I’m kind of looking forward to re-reading the next ones, especially OZMA OF OZ, which was one of my favorites as a child.