I didn't know a lot about L. Frank Baum and I've always had a bit of an interest in The Wizard of Oz, so I got this book and read it. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful and make this book. It's a nice quick read for a child that maybe wanted an intro. into biographies. This was really engaging. 5 out of 5 stars. ( )

I never knew how interesting Frank Baum's life was. He was a kind of Renaissance man, but didn't have much success with a lot of his endeavors. Most surprising to me was his connection to the early feminists: His mother-in-law was Matilda Joslyn Gage, who worked with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to form the National Woman Suffrage Association. He believed in their cause and wrote in favor of it in his newspaper (not a very popular thing to do at the time). You may also notice that most of the heroes of his books were independent girls. I'd just been thinking I wanted to finally read that series, and now I know I need to. ( )

Being a fan of Oz, this book was the yellow brick road up my alley. I loved the bright colors of the artwork as well as the detail-filled pages of this biography of Baum. Fans and non-fans of Oz will be inspired by Baum's fearlessness of endeavors.

The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum is a biography about L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz author. The major point of the book is to discuss the life story of Baum. It begins with his young privileged school days. He lived in upstate New York in the mid-19th century. He started with home schooling and briefly tried military school.

He spent the better half of his 20's and 30's working and failing at odd jobs. He got married and had kids, which enabled him to discover his true passion: telling stories to children. As he continued to flounder professionally, he began writing down his stories. He was able to publish The Wizard of Oz, which was his first successful book.

I liked this book. I found the book a lighter read for biographies. It provides a broad background prior to the writing of The Wizard of Oz. The language is simple, as is the sentence structure; both of which makes the book an easier read. The illustrations are bright, and helped progressed the book. For readers who had read The Wizard of Oz, it was fun seeing depictions of the book in the illustration. I feel like this would be a good introduction to non-fiction and biographies for young students. ( )

This book tells the story of L. Frank Baum, the author of 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz', and the troubles he was confronted with in his life. Ups and downs in his life are described but led him finally become a very famous author.
Probably a good introduction to deal with the story of Oz at school. ( )