jack pumpkinhead

For prenatal story time, we started with Wizard of Oz, then read Alice in Wonderland, and then we tried The Brothers Grimm. I thought I knew the Grimm fairy tales, but I sure didn't. They read like Dadaist anachronisms. Seriously, give them a try. (Download PDF.) Thoroughly surreal. Not uninteresting -- they were fascinating, even -- but not exactly the kind of thing that says "family" to me, not the sort of thing I look forward to the way Nathalie and I were each looking forward to the next chapter with Dorothy or Alice each evening.

So we've put the Grimm brothers aside and picked up The Marvelous Land of Oz, Baum's sequel to Dorothy's story. We're only a few chapters in, but already I like this book many times more than Wizard. It's clearly written by a more mature man who may still be writing for children, but he's writing for clever children and about much more interesting stuff. So say I, only several chapters into the book. It's funny; it's dramatic; I anticipate some long conversations with the pumkin about the nature of life, artifact, authority, trust, communication ... all based on the beginning of this story.

And speaking of pumpkins, the most interesting character so far is Jack Pumpkinhead, pictured above. He is the somewhat accidental creation of a mischievous boy. The two of them (and now a magically animated Saw-Horse for Jack to ride on so he doesn't wear out his wooden joints) are trekking south to visit the Emerald City, which is no longer ruled by the Wizard, but by our old friend the Scarecrow.

I found the Wizard of Oz fun, but it was clear to me that we'd be rereading Alice in Wonderland more often, finding more layers to it, using it as a launch pad to other projects.

I'm beginning to suspect that the Oz sequels will prove to be similarly intellectually rich.

- papa