II. El país de los Munchkins
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An A2 adaptation of Baum’s novel
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz El maravilloso mago de Oz
L. Frank Baum
This is a retelling of L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in simple Spanish, not the original text: a MovaReader adaptation for readers who already know the past tenses. In the catalog it is A2: about 5,500 words, 10 words per sentence on average. 10 chapters follow the story from the cyclone in Kansas and the silver shoes to the Emerald City, the Wicked Witch of the West, the balloon and the journey to Glinda.
- A2
- 5 461 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses will stop you: the story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (vivía, miró, dijo, tuvo), at 10 words per sentence on average.
A1A2
This text
You can manage it at A2: sentences are short, the story stays in the past tenses you know, and about a third of the words are dialogue.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 the adaptation reads with room to spare, in about an hour, and you can move on to the longer B1 adaptations or to the full Spanish texts, which start at B2 in the catalog.
Start readingThe average sentence has 10 words, and a word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 30 words (3.3%). The story is told in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto, and about one word in three sits inside the characters’ quotation marks. The long words are few and they repeat: Espantapájaros, Esmeralda, Munchkins and amarillas make up more than a fifth of them. The chapters run from 9 to 12 words per sentence, with the longest sentences in the first and the last. Next to the catalog’s other Spanish adaptations: the A1 tales run at 5-7 words per sentence, the A2 books at 8-10 (Peter Pan and Pinocho have 9, La sirenita and Don Quijote 10), the B1 ones at 11-12, and full Spanish texts start at B2 (Unamuno’s Niebla has 13 words per sentence). Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 5 461
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
A cyclone lifts a Kansas farmhouse into the air, and the girl inside, Dorothy, wakes up with her dog Toto in the land of the Munchkins. The house has landed on a wicked witch, and Dorothy is left with her silver shoes and a kiss on the forehead from the Good Witch of the North. To get home she must follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where the great Oz lives. On the way she meets a Scarecrow who wants brains, a Tin Woodman who wants a heart and a Cowardly Lion who wants courage. Together they cross a field of poppies, face the Wicked Witch of the West and her Winged Monkeys, and stand before the Wizard himself. Whether Dorothy gets back to Kansas is not revealed here.
Compare two places
El maravilloso mago de Oz
VIII. La Bruja Mala del Oeste
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Choose an underlined word.
Scene and action
What was going on around Dorothy uses the imperfecto: se acercaban, eran, parecían, vestían, llevaban, sonaban. A single action uses the pretérito indefinido: Dio un paso adelante y dijo, “she took a step forward and said”. Te damos las gracias por matar a la Bruja: por + infinitive means “for killing”, so “thank you for killing the Witch”.
Commands to several people
Id a buscar a los viajeros y devoradlos is a command to several people: id is from ir, “go”, and devoradlos is devorad + los, “devour them”, with the pronoun attached to the end. Voy a destruirlos is ir a + infinitive, “I am going to destroy them”, and los is attached to the end again. Como si fuera un telescopio means “as if it were a telescope”.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
Reader translates whole sentences, and here that helps most with the longer sentences of the plot, such as: Tienes que ir andando, y el camino es largo, pero está hecho de baldosas amarillas y no puedes perderte.
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Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
A learner adaptation, not the original: MovaReader retold L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900; Baum died in 1919) in simple Spanish, following the book and not any film. The source is the Project Gutenberg text of the novel, in English, and the cover is W. W. Denslow’s cover of the first edition. The language and length have changed: modern Spanish, mostly in the past tenses, 10 words per sentence on average, 10 chapters and about 5,500 words. The main episodes stay in the book’s order: the cyclone, the silver shoes, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion, the Kalidahs, the field of poppies and the Queen of the Mice, the Emerald City and the green spectacles, the four faces of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West and the Winged Monkeys, the balloon, and the journey to Glinda. The lion’s fight with a giant spider and many smaller scenes are left out. The catalog has no complete Spanish text of this novel.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audio version of this adaptation: MovaReader gives you the text, not a recording. The text is read on screen, and tapping an unfamiliar word shows its translation next to it; here that will mostly be everyday words of the story, such as ciclón, cesta or balsa.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
The Reader plan translates whole sentences. Here they are short, 10 words on average, so you will seldom need one translated: mostly the longer turns of the plot, like Tienes que ir andando, y el camino es largo, pero está hecho de baldosas amarillas y no puedes perderte, or Cada dueño del gorro podía mandarles tres cosas, y Dorothy tenía dos órdenes más. The free plan also translates single words, up to a daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole adaptation takes about 1-2 hours at the pace of someone who still translates new words. A chapter averages about 550 words, or 5-9 minutes of reading, so two evenings easily cover the whole book.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is fairly even, with a small rise at both ends: chapters II to IX average 9-10 words per sentence, while chapters I and X have about 12, because they hold the longest descriptions. Long words vary too: chapter V has one word in 48 with 9 letters or more, and chapter II one in 23, among them the name Munchkins.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in: the reader keeps your last place, so next time you carry on from there. The contents on this page also take you straight to any chapter, say VIII, “La Bruja Mala del Oeste”, where Dorothy meets the witch.