It's tricky because the Oz books really vary in quality. The first three or four are consistently inventive and interesting and often funny. Then Baum got tired of them and resented them and wanted to branch off to create something else. Then he'd reinvest himself and knock off a great one like The Patchwork Girl of Oz (my favorite, and book 8 in the series) or Glinda of Oz (Baum's last and a bit darker, and one of JZ's favorites).
I'm also a big fan of the two Cap'n Bill and Trot books The Sea Fairie and Sky Island which dovetail into the Oz series (both characters cross over and recur in Oz books). They're a little darker/scarier but really well written and have some of the most gorgeous illustrations by John R. Neil.
Also the Return to Oz movie (with Fairuza Balk, and The Wheelers) is great! A little scary but beautifully done. It adapts the second and third books in the series into one story.
I read some of the further OZ book as a child but I did have to interlibrary loan them. Until JZ, I did not know another person my age who even knew there were books. However, Matilda's wand says "OZ" so the Princess Leia is confusing.
she's firmly slotted as Movie Character, not Book.
If I needed my favourite character to count for a very important costume day, this would not be an obstacle worth pausing for, given how many gazillion (relatively speaking) books she managed to be in.
However, even as I was reading the books with Ozma in them, I was pretty sure I wasn't fighting with anyone else to get them out of the library. I certainly hear Extended Universe events dealing with Leia talked about more than Ozma (as in, this is the first time I think I've had an Ozma conversation ever, and I read the books 30 years ago).
However, Matilda's wand says "OZ"
And the headdress too! She's doubly Oz marked!
I've read all the Oz books, but it's been so long that I probably wouldn't have remembered Ozma off the top of my head. Great idea for a costume, though!
So the nurse was running a million years (aka an hour) late, so I called her. She had entirely forgotten, it seems. I "should have called earlier" (no) and "should call her the day before" (I will, but I shouldn't--this isn't my responsibility). I have no idea how she organises even slightly successfully as many appointments as she seems to have if she doesn't, ah, write them down? Work off some sort of a schedule?
::sigh:: She's the woman who gives me the meds my doctor orders, and that's heavily in her favour, but it could be more straightforward...
Pix and I are the same in that. I read at least four of the books as a kid, but don't remember them that well.
Yeah, "forgetting" is not optimal.
