Witches

I've seen The Wizard of Oz film many times but I had never read any of the books. In fact, I didn't even realize there was a whole series of Oz books until last year when we had to choose one to read for my Children's Literature class. I know, I must live under a rock, haha. I actually have yet to read the first one but I've read the second book in the series, The Marvelous Land of Oz. 

Since learning these other stories existed, I've wondered why more movies weren't made to cover them, after all the other stories seem to be just as rich in content as the first one. Most people love stories with magic and witches, and I'm sure there were good reasons not to make the other books into movies, perhaps they didn't want to ruin the magic of the first one that was so successful by just piling on more. I personally would enjoy the other books as movies as well, if they're done well of course. As for the book I read, it jumps into the conflict with the witch almost right away, if I remember correctly it gets into it in the first few pages. Poor Tip, the main character little boy, is threatened by the wicked witch he lives with that he'll be turned into a marble statue for messing with a pumpkin outside the house and trying to scare her. An interesting thing about Mombi, this wicked witch, that I noticed, is that she seems to be just all evil without really any redeeming qualities or possible efforts to reign in her wicked ways, at least not until closer to the end of the story. She chases after and tries to mess with Tip throughout the whole book, but then in the end we discover Tip is actually a princess who was cursed by Mombi and turned into a boy. With some convincing, Mombi turns him back into the princess, so at least she has that nice turnaround.

The big bad Wicked Witch in the original Oz movie on the other hand is evil right up to her "death," and I have death in quotation marks because I've seen Wicked on Broadway where it's revealed she didn't actually die. Speaking of witches and the struggle between good and bad, I thoroughly enjoyed Wicked and that twist on the story of Elphaba, the green-skinned girl who becomes known as The Wicked Witch of the West. I think there should be more witch stories like this where the witch is the protagonist rather than the antagonist. I remember reading The Crucible in middle school where the witches, whether real or not I honestly can't remember, I don't think there were since it was about the Salem witch trials for the most part, but in this story the idea of the witch was evil to all the normal townsfolk. I have no problems with the story, but I'm personally a bit tired of the witch being portrayed as some evil cackling long nosed fiend. This is one of the reasons I love the Harry Potter series so much, but that's for another discussion. Back to Wicked though, the concept of Elphaba and Glinda actually having been close friends was really cool for me, and the twist about how the Scarecrow was actually her boyfriend and she and him got to escape and be together in the end was awesome. If there were more witch stories like this I would be very happy.