Growing up, I read all 14 books in the original Oz books. The recent meme around #2 has me re-reading them, and I’m shocked at how well they hold up. Women-centered, full of strong female rulers and all-female armies (actually two, one more serious than the other). There’s some “beauty=thin=good” stuff and a handful of gendered comments. But they are decent cozy fairy stories with female main characters. Written in 1900-1919 and available for free on Project Gutenberg.
Discussion
Also the charming drawings in them are so delightful. Ozma and Glinda are basically art nouveau princesses.
Technically I’m only up to #4, so maybe they turn yucky later, though I remember “Glinda of Oz” (#14) being one of my favorites after “Ozma of Oz,” which has the most charming talking chicken. They’re also super quick reads now as an adult.
Update: Book 4, “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz,” is significantly less good than 2 & 3 in the Oz series. Mostly because it has the wizard in it, and he’s an adult male with the sensibilities of a dude and huckster in the early 1900s. He’s just not that interesting a character. Dorothy has a cat in it, which is a cute nod to us cat people, but that’s so far the only redeeming factor. 😂
