Book

Elphie : a wicked childhood / Gregory Maguire.

Maguire, Gregory, (author.). Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank), 1856-1919 Based on (work): Wizard of Oz. (Added Author). Maguire, Gregory. Prequel to: Wicked. (Added Author).

Summary:

"What happened to young Elphaba before her witchy powers took hold in Wicked? Almost 30 years after publication of the original novel, for the first time Gregory Maguire reveals the story of prickly young Elphie, the future Wicked Witch of the West"-- Provided by publisher.

Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, will grow to have a feisty and somewhat uncompromising character in adult life. But she is always a one-off, from her infancy; Elphie is the riveting coming-of-age story of a very peculiar and relatable young girl. Young Elphie is shaped and molded by the behaviors of her promiscuous mother, Melena, and her pious father, Frex. She suffers ordinary childhood jealousies when her sister, saintly Nessarose, and brother, junior felon Shell, arrive. She first encounters the mistreatment of the Animal populations of Oz, which live adjacent to but not intertwined with human settlements, haunted by a Monkey and receiving aid from Dwarf Bears. She thrashes through her first bruising attempts at friendship, a possible lifeline from her tricky family life. And she gleans the benefits of an education, haphazard though it must be--until she arrives at the doors of Shiz University, about to meet the radiant creature that is Galinda. Elphie is destined to be a witch; she bears the markings from childhood--most evidently in her green skin but more obscurely and profoundly in her cunning and perhaps amoral behaviors, as she seeks to make do, to slip by, to sneak out, to endure, and to aspire.

Record details

ISBN: 9780063445826
ISBN: 0063445824
ISBN: 9780063377011
ISBN: 0063377012
Physical Description: 277 pages : map ; 22 cm.
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2024]
Copyright: ©2024

Content descriptions

General Note:	Prequel to Wicked: the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Map on endpapers.
Formatted Contents Note:	Part one. Encounter day -- Part two. The hex -- Part three. The vegetable pearl -- Part four. The fledgling.