Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mother Goose in Prose | - | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 2 | By the Candelabra’s Glare | - | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 3 | Father Goose, His Book | - | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 4 | A New Wonderland / The Magical Monarch of Mo | 1900 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 5 | The Army Alphabet | 1900 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 6 | The Navy Alphabet | 1900 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 7 | American Fairy Tales | 1901 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 8 | Twinkle and Chubbins: Their Astonishing Adventures in Nature-Fairyland | 1906 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 9 | Father Goose’s Year Book | 1907 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 10 | The Oz-Man Tales: The Yellow Hen and Other Stories | 1916 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 11 | Animal Fairy Tales | 1969 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 12 | The Purple Dragon and Other Fantasies | 1976 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
| 13 | The Santa Claus Stories | 2020 | L. Frank Baum | Buy |
L. Frank Baum wrote far more than the Oz books, and these thirteen short story collections show the full range of his imagination. His earliest collections, including Mother Goose in Prose and Father Goose, His Book, retell nursery rhymes and fairy tales in Baum’s playful style. These books helped establish his reputation before The Wonderful Wizard of Oz made him famous in 1900.
The collections span from the late 1890s through posthumous compilations assembled decades after Baum’s death in 1919. American Fairy Tales (1901) was his attempt to create a distinctly American style of fairy story, while Twinkle and Chubbins (1906) gathered his Laura Bancroft pen-name stories for very young readers. Later compilations like Animal Fairy Tales (1969), The Purple Dragon and Other Fantasies (1976), and The Santa Claus Stories (2020) have kept Baum’s lesser-known short fiction in print for new generations of readers.