The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900, carries a Kansas farm girl by cyclone into a country where only a wizard can send her home. The 1939 film changed a lot: here Dorothy's shoes are silver, and the road passes fighting trees and a country made of china. Baum wanted a fairy tale without the nightmares of the old ones, and his three misfits are funny because each is so certain of what he lacks.

This is a gentle book to learn from. The narration is visual, and Baum's longer sentences are often split into two or three. The Vietnamese is more ornamental than his plain English, full of paired words like xinh xắn and ríu rít. Dorothy is tôi and bạn with the Scarecrow but cháu and chú with the Tin Woodman, while Oz greets visitors with an imperious ta and ngươi. Most chapters run about 2,000 syllables; three in the middle pass 4,000.