SYNOPSIS: Maud Baum, wife of the late author L. Frank Baum, is on the set of the big MGM masterpiece–The Wizard of Oz–on a mission to protect the character of Dorothy. She meets up with and befriends the young girl in this role, who happens to be none other than Judy Garland. When she realizes that she needs to protect more than the character, Maud makes it her mission to care for Judy and the entirety of her husband’s legacy. 

MY THOUGHTS: The synopsis only gives you part of the story. Most of the book follows the historical lives of Maud Baum and L. Frank Baum. Theirs is a love story for the ages, one of extreme high highs and low lows. Maud was bred to be a strong independent thinker, so when she meets Frank, a visionary and a whimsical fellow, she is truly in awe. Their story is one that will stay with me forever. The only reason this was not a 5-star book for me was only because it was a little slow in parts. I know that their lives were not always action-packed, but sometimes I was lingering on chapters for longer than I wanted to. 

I have been a fan of the movie The Wizard of Oz since I could remember, and I was born almost fifty years after it was released! The glitz and glamor, the characters, the old-timey costumes, and obviously, the unforgettable music all captured my attention from the moment it came on the television. In high school, the popular musical, Wicked came to Broadway and my passion for this story was ignited once more. I even wrote my giant junior-year paper comparing and contrasting the book, the movie, and the musical! Now I am in my 30’s, married with children, and this book has all the nostalgia rushing back to the child in me. 

I related to Maud in so many ways. Her life was planned out for her by her parents (mainly her strong-willed mother), but her life turned out so much differently than she could have imagined. She was given every opportunity to do what her parents had wanted for her, but ended up becoming smitten with a fanciful artist. While I did not marry an artist per say, my husband is very much like Frank. Not only is he a writer, but he is a dreamer. And just like Maud, I tend to bring him back down to Earth so often. He is also so similar to Frank in that he is a steadfast enthusiastic believer in me as a wife, mom, and overall human being. He loves our family and would give anything to support mine and my girls’ dreams, no matter how foreign they may be to him. Again, this made me fall more in love with the Baum couple.

Elizabeth Letts wrote a beautiful and extensively researched story. In the afterword she talks about how much of what she described was true. I was amazed to find that although elements of this story were fictional, there was a lot of truth! It made me love this book even more.