序言
民間傳奇和神話故事伴隨著孩子們走過童年，每個健康的孩子，相信都對神奇有趣又虛幻的故事愛不釋手。就像格林童話和安徒生童話，帶給孩子的心靈許多歡笑，絕非其他作品可比。
然而，在兒童的圖書館中，代代相傳的老式童話已經被分類成「老故事」了，現在的「奇幻故事」已不再需要刻板印象中的精靈、侏儒和仙女。而且，以往的童話作者為了在童話中達到教化目的，所設計的血腥駭人故事，現在也已經不適用了。因為現代教育已經納入道德倫理，兒童想從神奇的童話故事中得到的是趣味，而不樂見令人感到不適的情節。
有了這樣的想法，我寫了《綠野仙蹤》這本書來取悅現代的兒童。我想讓這本書成為一種現代童話，讓孩子們能在這本書中獲得趣味與喜悅，不會感到憂傷或留下夢魘。
法蘭克．巴姆
一九○○年四月於芝加哥
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Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and
manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.
Yet the old-time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which
the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern
education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.
Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and
joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out. ──L. Frank Baum (Chicago, April, 1900)
