The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , children’s book written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It was first published in 1900. The first novel in the Oz series, the story chronicles the adventures of a young Kansas farm girl named Dorothy in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home by a tornado. Upon her arrival in Oz, she learns she cannot return home until she has destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West. The story was enormously popular and became a classic of children’s literature. However, by the late 20th century the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz had become more familiar than the book on which it was based.