--- title: Ozma of Oz: 100 Best Fantasy Books description: Find out why Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum is on TIME's list of the best fantasy books of all time canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898430/ozma-of-oz/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-10-14T20:58:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:43:17.011Z og:title: 'Ozma of Oz' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books og:description: Here’s why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898430/ozma-of-oz/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta067cdf2e1b6db3c/698a131e22fb85ab1ee2b828/Ozma-of-Oz-L-Frank-Baum-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Ozma of Oz' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Ozma of Oz' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books twitter:description: Here’s why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta067cdf2e1b6db3c/698a131e22fb85ab1ee2b828/Ozma-of-Oz-L-Frank-Baum-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 14, 2020 # Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  After the success of [_The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_](https://time.com/5647491/wizard-of-oz-curse/), published in 1900, L. Frank Baum wrote a whole series of wildly inventive _Oz_ books—14 in all, most of them featuring the young heroine he introduced in the first, Dorothy Gale of Kansas. Nearly all are terrific, but the third, from 1907, may be the most memorable: _Ozma of Oz_ finds Dorothy en route to Australia by ship, where she is blown into the drink during a massive storm. She floats to shore in a chicken coop, and finds herself not in Oz, but in a nearby kingdom known as the Land of Ev. There she reconnects with her old friends Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Woodman, and makes new ones including Tiktok, a mechanical copper man. But she also meets several formidable enemies, including the haughty Princess Langwidere, who keeps exactly 30 beautiful heads in a mirror-lined dressing room, changing them according to whim. Baum’s description of Langwidere is vivid, alluring and more than a little macabre, and the accompanying pen-and-ink illustration by John R. Neill, showing her as a chic, Gibson Girl-style temptress, only seals the deal. The Oz books are frequently cited by creative, inventive professionals as childhood favorites. Strike up a conversation with any of them and see if Langwidere doesn’t come up within the first five minutes. No one ever forgets the princess with interchangeable heads. —_Stephanie Zacharek_ **Buy Now:** _Ozma of Oz_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781950435449) |[ Amazon](https://amzn.to/3jN8OHl) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898430/ozma-of-oz/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898430/ozma-of-oz/"},"headline":"'Ozma of Oz' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books","datePublished":"2020-10-14T20:58:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:43:17.011Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898430/ozma-of-oz/","keywords":["Books","list"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta067cdf2e1b6db3c/698a131e22fb85ab1ee2b828/Ozma-of-Oz-L-Frank-Baum-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta067cdf2e1b6db3c/698a131e22fb85ab1ee2b828/Ozma-of-Oz-L-Frank-Baum-100-best-fantasy-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-fantasy-books/5898430/ozma-of-oz/","name":"'Ozma of Oz' Is on TIME's List of the 100 Best Fantasy Books"}}]}] ```