Excellent call on the Oz books. L. Frank Baum was quite prolific and built a whole pantheon of characters beyond those most people know from the Judy Garland m

Excellent call on the Oz books. L. Frank Baum was quite prolific and built a whole pantheon of characters beyond those most people know from the Judy Garland movie. When I was in elementary school, I was lucky enough to inherit most of Baum's Oz books (in hardcover, bound in the late 40s and 50s) and consider them a real gem. The illustrations by John R. Neill were fantastic. Why Hollywood continues to insist on ignoring a treasure-trove of "canon" material in favor of utter crap cobbled together by teams of screenwriters is beyond me.