Very brief "junior" novelization of the film, written by British folklorist Neil Philip under a pseudonym. An adult could read it in an hour or two at most.

Philip rewrites very nearly every piece of dialogue from the script, as well as quite a bit of internal thinking, that shifts the characters in entirely new directions while maintaining the same basic plot. Perhaps the most obvious change is the total removal of Americanisms, with British-friendly slang and constructions in their place; the most affected is Billina, who seems to have shifted from a very American chicken to a working-class British hen.

The more interesting aspect of the book is the way in which Philip applies folkloric terms, especially to the second half in the Nome King's dominions. The Nome King speaks in prosey, abstract terms that might actually be hard for a small child to understand; for instance, he talks about the jewels of his realm being "riven" to make the Emerald City. There's also a lot of rock and mining symbolism, the best bit being when he tells Dorothy that breaking down crying is "not how a brave little rock behaves" and that "there's no rift without a trace of ore" (as opposed to the more common omelet/egg scenario, for obvious reasons!).

It's a very slight book, but for fans of the movie and Oz in different forms, worth more of a read than you'd suspect. Pleasantly, like the other Puffin Oz books (reprints of Baum's novels 1 - 8), it also includes a simplified version of the original Oz map. ( )