Imagine reading a “Cycling Companion Wanted” ad in a bicycling newsletter for a cross-America bike trip, answering it, and setting off two months later with a woman you just met for a 3,500-mile, 60-day journey from California to Washington, DC. Taken from Virginia’s journal this tells the story of two twenty-nine year old adventurers who fulfill a common dream. She recalls exhilarating roads and landscapes, tedious miles, peaceful times, scary experiences, personal struggles, wonderful encounters with people, and the unfolding of a journey of a lifetime.

Over the Rainbow shows how Dorothy's passage from Kansas to Oz and back again recapitulates paradigmatic stories of both America and Christianity. Defining human identity on three symbolic levels (individual, collective, and cosmic), Nathanson shows that The Wizard of Oz has come to be a "secular myth."

Since the publication of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, authors, filmmakers, and theatrical producers have been retelling and reinventing this uniquely American fairy tale. This volume examines six especially significant incarnations of the story: Baum's original novel, the MGM classic The Wizard of Oz (1939), Sidney Lumet's African American film musical The Wiz (1978), Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995), Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's Broadway hit Wicked: A New Musical (2003), and the SyFy Channel miniseries Tin Man (2007). A close consideration of these works demonstrates how versions of Baum's tale are influenced by and help shape notions of American myth, including issues of gender, race, home, and magic, and makes clear that the Wizard of Oz narrative remains compelling and relevant today.

As one of the last remaining Munchkins, Betty Ann Bruno has had aninside look at the legendary land of Oz, and has traveled her ownYellow Brick Road well beyond that rainbow. At 5, she was directed in a film by John Ford. At 12, she was the fulltime organist in a Catholic church, where she was mentored by a ex-seminarian who tried repeatedly to molest her. As an adult she worked for the CIA.She then became Oakland's first female, Asian-American TV reporter, where she talked a notorious drug dealer into doing an on-camera profile before he later threatened to kill her. She survived the 1991 Oakland Hills Firestorm that burned 3,000 homes (including hers), and described the scene live on national TV after barely escaping with her life. There's a lot more, including her exploration of the spiritual mysteries she calls "life after life." Through it all is her struggle with her ethnicity and her ultimate acceptance of herself by founding Hula Mai, a Hawaiian dance company. It's a wise and honest account of a very eventful journey and a riveting rea

LIFE is where the nation first learned about TheWizard of Oz and its soon-to-be starlet Judy Garland. Seventy-five years after the debut of the classic American movie, this commemorative volume, LIFE The Wizard of Oz: 75 Years Along the Yellow Brick Road, includes rare and never-before-seen photography about the iconic film, intimate portraits of the film's stars, and exclusive commentary from renowned contributors, including TIME movie critic Richard Corliss. This celebratory book not only covers the history of the movie, but also explores the legends, lore and the effect the movie had on the nation's film industry and culture- The Wizard of Oz was one of the first color films created.

This book is about the battles west of Hue by a Recon soldier of the 2/502 Infantry 101st Airborne Division Vietnam and his personal reconciliation with his past painful memories.

Examines the difficulties Americans have in following directions and offers advice for using logical reasoning to create and follow instructions

In this must-have book for all fans of Oz big and small, artist and visionary Gabriel Gale brings to vivid life all the creatures from L. Frank Baum’s beloved series, from the iconic characters in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to many others that are visualized here for the first time. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the best-selling American children’s book of the twentieth century, and the classic 1939 movie of this quintessential American fairy tale left a permanent mark on the hearts and imaginations of devoted fans throughout the world. In THE ART OF OZ: WITCHES, WIZARDS, AND WONDERS BEYOND THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD artist and Oz archeologist Gabriel Gale brings to life all the creatures and inhabitants from L. Frank Baum’s beloved series, many illustrated here for the first time: wicked witches and their armies, mythical beasts, elemental fairies, robots, insects, one-legged and two-sided people, and many more sky, land, sea, and underground creatures. THE ART OF OZ also debuts the first-ever “Google Map” of the Land of Oz! Gabriel Gale has mapped the country and animated all the creatures he found there. He has sketched Emerald City the buildings and habitats of the enchanted Land. Through spectacular illustrations, in original and precise style, Gale portrays each character in detail, often with attention to anatomy, structure, size and scale. Gale’s fantastical, vivid, and delightful renderings are also accompanied by excerpts and drawings from the fourteen books in Baum’s Oz series and the most famous inhabitants of Oz—Professor H.M. Woggle-Bug, T.E., Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Toto, Glinda the Good, and the Wizard—add context to this magical endeavor This is the perfect book for the whole family to share and for anyone entranced by the fantasy and everlasting magic of Oz

All those who live “Over the Hill on the Yellow Brick Road” are growing older and figuring out where they belong in the world. In this whimsical collection of adult conversations, silliness is woven around the heartfelt thoughts and painful feelings we have as we begin to wrinkle and crinkle. The conversations take place in an allegorical land, where The Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe is now an empty nester and has mixed feelings about downsizing to a sandal. The aging Tooth Fairy talks about slowing down and becoming an Implant Fairy. A five-hundred-year-old tree still wants to feel part of the world, though he’s too fragile to carry birds on his branches, and a loaf of stale bread faces age discrimination and searches for ways to continue to bring out the best in herself. Each conversation strikes a brilliant balance between humor and spirituality.