The Yellow Brick Road

The book is FINDING OZ and the author is Evan Schwartz.
It would be hard to find anyone in this country who has not seen the movie "The Wizard of Oz" where Judy Garland sing "Over the Rainbow" and gets transported to the colorful land of Oz.
The movie came from a play and the play came from a book written by L Frank Baum in the very early 1900's. I knew all of this since I grew up reading the "oz books" and have a complete collection. But Schwart'z book told me some things I didn't know about Mr.Baum.
For one thing, his mother-in-law, Matilda Gage, was an ardent and active feminist, campaigning for the vote for women. This might explain why the protagonist is a spunky, resourceful girl rather than a boy. Secondly, Baum was a emember of the Theosophical Society -- a group which brought tenets of Eastern religion and philosophy to the U.S. One of their studies involved the four paths to enlightenment -- through cultivation of the mind (intellect) development of the emotions (love) or through withstanding tests of courage. There you have it -- the scarecrow, the tinman and the lion. The fourth way is serenity -- finding home. This children's story became an American myth because it embodies a very real and helpful road map for becoming an adult.