I'm sorry, JZ! Was Matilda disappointed to not be recognized? I saw a picture of her in the costume and thought she was simply precious.

The kids use Pandora so I hear music from their selections. I don't purposely seek new music so much as often find myself around 'new to me' music by associating with a lot of people that have different musical tastes than mine. I enjoy a wide variety of music and welcome opportunities to be exposed to new things.

ION, I just realized that the CD I was about to roll over (Capital One 360, formerly ING Direct) had a lower interest rate than their regular savings. So I didn't roll it over.

Also, I started making a written budget for the first time ever, and realized I actually should up my regular transfer to savings. It's not like I can't transfer money back when I want to.

For all that you're surprised people haven't read the books with Ozma in them, JZ, I'm sure people would be surprised you don't know Leia is in books too.

CJ wanders all over spotify for music.

I'm working on Sunday. We had a big schedule deliverable at the end of the week and had gotten a message from the client saying we needed to make adjustments to A, B, and C. So we reviewed A, B, and C and sent revisions.

Today the client sends an e-mail saying we didn't properly respond and why were D and E not fixed. Ummmm...you didn't say there was a problem with D or E. Now we are running around like chickens trying to get answers on D and E. Oy.

Was Matilda disappointed to not be recognized?

No, just surprised.

but I'm surprised the teachers didn't recognize her.

The Oz books have had an odd history with educators. They were incredibly popular in the early 20th century, where getting a new Oz book was something most children looked forward to at Christmas.

But librarians and educators disliked them. There was a general bias against series books, the usual disdain for fantasy/science fiction and a bit of a false binary choice between Alice in Wonderland vs. Oz.

I didn't really clue into this until I went into the SF public library when I first moved here and asked a children's librarian about why they didn't have the Oz series and got such snooty hauteur as one usually gets form asking an indie record clerk for their REO Speedwagon section.

I'd be curious to hear from Kate and Beth to see if that kind of bias is still entrenched. It's rare to find a children's library today that has more than The Wizard of Oz.

I read a bunch of the Oz series as a child, and they're very formulaic. They're not any worse than a lot of long kids' series (OMG the Boxcar Children), but I can see them not being a favorite of librarians.

OTOH with the right artist they would make for a GREAT graphic novel series for today. They're vintage steampunk!

Didn't Matilda's wand actually say 'OZ' on it? That's definitely educator-fail then.

Having recently watched a documentary on Baum (thank you, Smithsonian Channel) I was surprised to find out that Baum was related to some fairly prominent suffragettes, so the prominence of young female protagonists with agency in his books is not a coincidence. I wonder how much that played into librarian-disapproval, because the books aren't exactly endorsing girls staying home to become housewives....

Actually, Marvel Comics has been doing a well-regarded series of Oz adaptations.

Oh, I know she's *in* books, but her origin is definitely the movies; after that, the novelizations and the expanded universe and so on and so forth. But Leia-the-book-character would never have existed without Leia-the-movie-character coming first, so (in my brain anyway) she's firmly slotted as Movie Character, not Book.

I read non stop as a child but had no idea who Ozma was until JZ explained. As I remember, we had some Oz books at home and started one but didn't really like them. Although I would never have gotten Princess Leia from her adorable costume.