The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for English learners: level, words and how to read it

What the book is about

Dorothy lives on a grey farm in Kansas with her uncle, her aunt and her little dog Toto. A cyclone lifts the whole house and drops it in the magical Land of Oz, right on top of the Wicked Witch of the East. To get home, Dorothy must follow the road of yellow brick to the Emerald City and ask the great Wizard of Oz for help.

On the way she meets the Scarecrow, who wants a brain, the Tin Woodman, who wants a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who wants courage. But the Wizard sends them on a dangerous mission first: to destroy the Wicked Witch of the West.

Themes

• Home. Even a grey farm in Kansas is better than any magic land if it is home.
• What we already have. The friends want brains, a heart and courage, and keep showing them all along.
• Friendship. Four very different travellers help each other through every danger.
• Appearances. The great Wizard is not what he seems.

How hard is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to read in English?

How many unknown words will you meet? With a vocabulary of about 2,000 words, roughly 12 in every hundred, since those words cover 88.5% of the text. With 5,000 words it is about 6 in a hundred, with 10,000 about 2. Character names are not counted.

Measured by vocabulary alone, the book is B1–B2: that is the level at which almost every word is already familiar (why 98% matters). Tap-to-translate covers the rest, so you can start at B1. It is the easiest book on our list; the next step up is Black Beauty.

What is hard: almost nothing. A few old-fashioned words (spectacles, humbug, inquired) and some fairy-tale vocabulary. What helps: the most familiar vocabulary on our list (almost 98% of the text is covered by the 10,000 most common words), short sentences, short chapters and a story you probably already know.

Our take: B1, the easiest book on our list. Perfect as a first book in English or a quick confidence boost.

Words to know before you start

The book’s own vocabulary: frequent in this text, much less common elsewhere. Ten minutes with this list makes the opening chapters smoother.

How to read it in the original

1. Read a chapter a day. About 1,600 words, ten minutes: the whole book in under four weeks, or much faster.
2. Notice the differences from the film. In the book Dorothy’s shoes are silver, not ruby, and there are more adventures.
3. Save the reporting verbs. Inquired, exclaimed, remarked replace “said” all the time; they are useful in every book.
4. Read it aloud. The clear, simple sentences are great for pronunciation practice.

The first line

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife.

L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

in the midst ofin the middle of

phrase in context

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A simple, clear first sentence with familiar words: a good sign of the whole book. The next paragraphs describe how grey everything in Kansas is, to contrast with the colours of Oz.

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