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In creating the Land of Oz, L. Frank Baum earned a special place in the history of juvenile literature. Children's books have just not been the same since Dorothy first went to the Emerald City. While damned for years by prominent librarians and educators as being no better than "trash," the Oz books have given immeasurable pleasure to their young readers. "A child who may not be able to name offhand the capital of Nebraska or Montana," noted Ruth Plumly Thompson, "can tell you in a flash the capital of Oz and is often more familiar with its principal rivers, mountains, rulers, points of interest, and historical landmarks than with those of his native state--perhaps because he considers Oz his native state." Indeed, Oz has a reality not even its creator could have imagined. For Ray Bradbury, "Oz is that place, ten minutes before sleep, where we bind up our wounds, soak our feet, dream ourselves better, snooze poetry on our lips, and decide that mankind, for all its snide and mean and dumb, must be given another chance come dawn and a hearty breakfast." Oz has entered the language.
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