I am known amongst my friends for my absolute Oz obsession— both the books and the movie hold their own special places in my heart. I started reading them when I was about five, so I was especially excited to start them with my own 5yo. We’ve been doing a lot of longer books as audio in the car, and Brooke Shields’ narration here is solid. This entry in the series is probably one I’ve reread the least, however, and rereading it now, I’m not surprised. It’s fascinating to see the beginnings of a lot of the lore from later in the series (Omby Amby and Jellica Jamb both make unnamed appearances), but a lot of it is inconsistent. And it’s kind of unsatisfying that we can clearly see our heroes had brains, heart and courage all along, but they never realize that themselves. It’s giving me a lot of ideas and I’m excited to keep going with the series.