This was interesting reading the book with having only seen the musical and movie before hand. Some things struck me like how dull and boring Aunt Em and Uncle Henry were as compared to how fun and exciting Oz was and yet how much Dorothy still wanted to get home? There wasn't a whole lot of compassion built up in the reader to Dorothy's reason for wanting to get back?... She and her companions had a whole lot going for them by the end of the book before she returns. 
 I noticed that the whole dream idea of characters from Kansas being molded into the characters of Oz was an invention in the movie and not the book. It was also interesting that the whole grey scale look to Kansas and then rainbow color infusion once in Oz was part of the book and not just the movie. I found that intriguing because I would have imagined they MGM was just itching to try out their new in full color technology anywhere they could, but apparently the picked the absolute perfect story to place it with as well! A great fit! 
 There's quite a bit more story included in the book and it's a fun read. It's a little darker with some scary creatures that the Lion tackles and some gruesome scenes of the scarecrow and tin man being disembodied, but all in all a great fun adventure and a classic read to relate to your kids! :-)