Oh boy, this was fun!  What a delightful collection of tales from the Oz I remember, from an Oz that might have been, and from a completely impossible Oz.  Fifteen of today’s best fantasy authors contributed to this anthology, providing all manner of stories, from the violent and dark tale set in a mental institution in One Flew Over the Rainbow, to the gentle Dorothy Dreams.  Orson Scott Card takes the son of L. Frank Baum on an adventure and Ken Liu has a Chinese Dorothy. Familiar characters sometimes look a little different, often act very different. The foreword by Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, provides a perfect prelude to this wonderful book.  My only complaint is that there wasn’t enough.  Just as when I was a child, I wanted the stories to go on forever.  There is a content note in the book that advises the mature themes in some of the stories and rightly so.  Best for older teens.

NetGalley Review   Publication date 2.26.13