The Wonderful Wizard of Oz summary for kids

A cyclone carries Dorothy away

Dorothy lives on the dry, gray Kansas prairie with her Uncle Henry, her Aunt Em and her little black dog, Toto. One day a cyclone comes. Uncle Henry runs to warn the animals, but Dorothy cannot reach the storm cellar in time. The whole house is lifted into the sky and carried a long way, until it comes down gently in a beautiful green country.

The house has landed on top of the Wicked Witch of the East, who is now dead. The small, friendly Munchkins cheer, and the kind Good Witch of the North explains that Dorothy has freed them from years of slavery. She gives Dorothy the dead witch’s silver shoes, which have some power, and a kiss on the forehead that leaves a mark to protect her. She cannot send Dorothy home herself. Only the great Wizard of Oz, who lives in the Emerald City, might help, and the way there is a road of yellow brick.

The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman

Dorothy sets off with Toto. At a cornfield she meets a Scarecrow, stuffed with straw and painted with a face, who is stuck up on a pole. She helps him down. He sadly believes his head holds only straw, so he asks to come along and ask the Wizard for brains.

Deep in a forest they find a man made entirely of tin, rusted still in the rain with his axe raised. After they oil his joints he tells his story. He was once a woodchopper named Nick Chopper, but a witch enchanted his axe, which cut off his limbs one at a time, and a tinsmith replaced each one. Now he is tin all through, and he believes he has no heart. He joins them to ask the Wizard for one.

The Lion, the chasm and the poppies

A huge Lion springs out and roars, then bites at Toto. Dorothy slaps his nose, and he admits he is a coward who is secretly afraid of everything. He too joins the group, hoping for courage.

The friends face danger on the road. They cross a deep chasm by felling a tree. Then two terrible Kalidahs, creatures with the bodies of bears and the heads of tigers, chase them. The Tin Woodman chops the tree through so that the Kalidahs plunge into the gulf. Later the travelers float across a river on a raft, and the Scarecrow is left stranded on a pole in the water until a stork lifts him off.

The Deadly Poppy Field and the field mice

Near the Emerald City they cross a wide field of bright red poppies. The sweet smell sends Dorothy, Toto and the Lion into a deep sleep from which they would never wake. The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, who are not flesh and blood, are not affected, and they carry Dorothy and Toto out. The Lion is far too heavy to lift.

Help comes from a surprising place. The Tin Woodman had once saved a little field mouse by chopping off the head of the wildcat chasing her, and she is now the Queen of the Field Mice. She sends thousands of mice, who pull the Lion out of the poppies on a truck made by the Woodman, and he wakes safe and sound.

The Emerald City and the terrible Wizard

At the gates, a Guardian gives each traveler green spectacles to wear, so the glittering Emerald City will not hurt their eyes. Everything seems green. The Wizard, who is very powerful, will see each of them on a different day. To Dorothy he appears as an enormous head, to the Scarecrow as a lovely lady, to the Woodman as a terrible beast and to the Lion as a ball of fire.

To all of them he says the same thing. He will grant their wishes only after they have killed the Wicked Witch of the West, who rules the Winkies in the western land. Dorothy is afraid, but the friends agree to go.

The Wicked Witch of the West

The Witch has only one eye but can see very far. She sends forty wolves, then a flock of crows, then a swarm of black bees, and each time the friends win using the Woodman’s axe or the Scarecrow’s straw. Then she calls the Winged Monkeys with her Golden Cap, a charm that gives her three wishes over them. They tear the Scarecrow apart, drop the Tin Woodman onto rocks, and carry Dorothy and Toto to the castle, leaving the Lion tied up.

Dorothy becomes the Witch’s servant. The Witch wants the silver shoes, and one day she tricks Dorothy into losing one. In anger, Dorothy throws a bucket of water over the Witch, and the Witch, who is terrified of water, melts away. Dorothy is free. The Winkies, who are grateful, repair the Tin Woodman and restack the Scarecrow with fresh straw. Dorothy takes the Golden Cap before they leave.

Behind the curtain

The Winged Monkeys carry the friends back to the Emerald City. The Wizard puts off seeing them, until Toto knocks over a screen in the throne room and reveals a little old man. He is no wizard. He is an ordinary man from Omaha who came to Oz by hot air balloon and has fooled everyone with tricks. He confesses that he is a humbug.

Yet he does not send them away empty-handed. He fills the Scarecrow’s head with bran, pins and needles, and says these are brains. He puts a silk heart stuffed with sawdust into the Tin Woodman’s chest. He gives the Lion a green drink that he calls courage. Each friend is delighted, because each had what he wanted all along, and only needed to believe it.

South to Glinda, and home

The Wizard builds a balloon to take Dorothy to Kansas, but it rises early, while Dorothy is chasing Toto, and floats off without her. He leaves the Scarecrow in charge of the city. Dorothy and her friends then set out south to find Glinda, the Good Witch of the South.

The journey is full of surprises. The Fighting Trees grab at travelers, but the Woodman’s axe chops off a branch and clears the way. They climb a wall into the China Country, where people and animals are made of delicate china and break easily, and Dorothy is careful not to knock anything over. In a dark forest the Lion kills a giant spider that has been terrorizing the animals, and they make him their king. The odd, armless Hammer-Heads, whose heads shoot out on long necks, block the hill, so Dorothy uses the Golden Cap to call the Winged Monkeys, who fly them over. Then they reach the land of the Quadlings.

Glinda is kind and beautiful. She tells Dorothy that the silver shoes could have taken her home all along, with three clicks of the heels. Dorothy says goodbye, and the Scarecrow rules the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman the Winkies and the Lion the forest. Dorothy clicks her heels and flies home. The shoes drop off in the desert, and she runs into Aunt Em’s arms, saying how glad she is to be home again.