I loved the movie of Return to Oz. I think I even have the movie-tie-in novel somewhere.

I have a memory of liking the end of Volatire's Candide. But it's been half my life since I read it in high school. I've been thinking about cultivating my garden lately.

I'll be able to tell them that a stranger from the internet supports my point of view.

"The lurkers support me in email."

Nilly, not only were there other Oz books, there were a huge number of Oz offshoots. Receiving a new Oz book was a Christmas tradition for decades in the early part of the century. After Baum died, Ruth Plumly Thompson continued the tradition, then his illustrator John R. Neill took it up. There were also many different Oz stage shows (the second Oz book is dedicated to two performers from the musical). Baum himself made some of the earliest silent movies based on Oz books (I particularly like the version of The Patchwork Girl of Oz, which is also my favorite later Oz book). On top of that there were long running comic strips in the Sunday paper, and now that Oz is public domain, its been used as the basis for a couple different comic books.

These collections of Oz Story pull together all the fun ephemera. It's really an early form of fandom with lots of fanfic type stuff.

the movie-tie-in novel

t sheepishly What does a "movie-tie-in novel" mean?

I had no idea there were so many Oz follow-creations. Wow. It's like Sherlock-Holmes big, or even more, the way you describe it.

[Edit: thanks for the link, Hec. This may use one day for a great present for my baby sister, who is the Oz-iest of the 5 of us]

What does a "movie-tie-in novel" mean?

It's a novelization of the movie. That is, they hire some hack writer to do a cheap paperback that tells the same story as the movie. It's an interesting weird little sub-genre. I actually read the novelization for Star Wars before the movie opened.

I had no idea there were so many Oz follow-creations. Wow. It's like Sherlock-Holmes big, or even more, the way you describe it.

Similar. They are two of the biggest early fandoms, along with Tarzan.

my baby sister, who is the Oz-iest of the 5 of us

This makes me think of her as a strangely laconic short guitar player with cool hair.

I liked the Ruth Plumly Thompson ones better than the Baum ones, actually.

What does a "movie-tie-in novel" mean?

A novel or book based on the plot of the movie, and usually not very well-written, but with pages of photos from the movie. The Return to Oz one was a weird case because the movie is based off of an exisiting book, but the tie-in novel isn't just a re-print of that exisiting work.

We will not speak of the abomination that was the movie-tie-in novel for Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. Even the pretty pictures didn't help.

Good Thought For The Day: There are no tie-in books for The Lord of the Rings.

Thanks for the explanation, Hec and Jilli. I don't think we have anything like that here. No, wait, we do - for one horrid Israeli movie. Let;s not speak of it.

along with Tarzan.

Tarzan was huge here in the early days of Israel - there were short books published about him by Israeli writers (not sure if they cleared the legal issues first), but I still think that plenty of even the books weren't translated.

strangely laconic short guitar player with cool hair.

She's taller than me and my other sister, she learns to play guitar, she has nearly Rio-like curls, she's not laconic, but she probably shares lots of Oz' musical tastes. Close enough.