By L. Frank Baum
The real Wizard of Oz, turned into a fold-out, pull-the-tab paper wonder by the MinaLima studio.
A cyclone lifts Dorothy and her little dog Toto out of gray Kansas and sets the house down — right on top of the Wicked Witch of the East — in the bright, strange country of Oz. To get home she follows the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, gathering a Scarecrow who longs for a brain, a Tin Woodman who longs for a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who longs for courage, and together they're sent to destroy the Wicked Witch of the West before the humbug Wizard will help. This is Baum's original 1900 story, not the film, made by the MinaLima studio into an interactive keepsake: pull a tab and the cyclone turns, lift a flap and the Emerald City glitters, page after page.
The MinaLima editions are built to be handled, not just read, and that's what makes this a gift: a heavy, gorgeous book where the story moves in your hands. The tale underneath is a real adventure, funnier and odder than the film, and old enough to feel like a proper classic. Give it to a child who loves the movie and would light up seeing where it came from, or to anyone who can't resist paper that folds, spins, and pops. It reads aloud beautifully, a chapter at a time.