There's No Place Like Home--Oz pages 59-60

Hello lovelies! Here we are at the end of our journey .If you are like me and don’t want it to end, then remember there are thirteen other Oz books by L Frank Baum (plus other good ones like The Sea Fairies, Sky Island and the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus) out there just waiting to be read! You can read them all for free here on [PROJECT GUTENBERG}

It has been so wonderful to revisit this book. I truly believe it holds up well and is as delightful as when my mother first shared it with me all those years ago, side by side in the brown recliner. She read me two chapters a night for two years and it is my happiest memory of time spent with her.

Here are the last two pages:

I made the rainbow just like I did at the start of the book by using torn tissue paper  and had it lead diagonally into the desert which I made out of sandpaper and then back to the sepia of Kansas. I made the sepia just a little brighter this time and not as dreary to show that Dorothy had brought a little of the rainbow back with her and is no way an indication that I couldn’t remember how I had made the sepia at the start of the book since it was the first illustration. I did NOT have trouble remembering which paints I used and the story about Dorothy bringing back some magic is in no way a cover story for my inability to have written down my paint formula. So there. I made their little house similar, but slightly different as it did have to be rebuilt.

Dorothy now took Toto up solemnly in her arms, and having said one last good-bye she clapped the heels of her shoes together three times, saying:

"Take me home to Aunt Em!"

Instantly she was whirling through the air, so swiftly that all she could see or feel was the wind whistling past her ears.

The Silver Shoes took but three steps, and then she stopped so suddenly that she rolled over upon the grass several times before she knew where she was.

At length, however, she sat up and looked about her.

"Good gracious!" she cried.

For she was sitting on the broad Kansas prairie, and just before her was the new farmhouse Uncle Henry built after the cyclone had carried away the old one. Uncle Henry was milking the cows in the barnyard, and Toto had jumped out of her arms and was running toward the barn, barking furiously.

Dorothy stood up and found she was in her stocking-feet. For the Silver Shoes had fallen off in her flight through the air and were lost forever in the desert. Note: As the silver shoes were lost in flight  there is no way that she can return to Oz this way—but there are many ways to get to Oz! There is also a fantastic indie comic called The Royal Historian of Oz by Tommy Kovak and Andy Hirsch which is based on the idea of what would happen if the silver shoes were ever found. This is a great adventure with so many Oz references from all fourteen of the books that it is a joy to read. 

Aunt Em had just come out of the house to water the cabbages when she looked up and saw Dorothy running toward her.

"My darling child!" she cried, folding the little girl in her arms and covering her face with kisses. "Where in the world did you come from?"

"From the Land of Oz," said Dorothy gravely. "And here is Toto, too. And oh, Aunt Em! I'm so glad to be at home again!"

There’s no place like home! This book is always home to me—it is my first love. The first book that really inspired me and fired up my imagination. All of my first stories were re-tellings of Oz with me as the heroine and whichever characters were in the book my mother was currently reading aloud to me. When we became British citizens I got a tattoo of a woodcut of Oz from the book Ozma of Oz to remind me “there’s no place like home.”  It is my source of comfort and joy. It was the perfect project to work on during lockdown and I needed the comfort of Oz to see me through. Thank you to L Frank Baum for such wonderful stories. Thank you to my Mum for introducing me to the world of Oz. Thank you to my beloved Amazing Spiderman who feeds my habit of Oz memorabilia. And thank all of you for coming on this magical journey with me.