It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.ĭorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife. Having this thought in mind, the story of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» was written solely to please children of today. Modern education includes morality therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.
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. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations. Glinda The Good Witch Grants Dorothy’s Wishįolklore, 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.