The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Il Meraviglioso Mago di Oz: Bilingual parallel text - Bilingue con testo inglese a fronte: English - Italian / Inglese - Italiano (Italian Edition)

When I was a child, on every birthday and Christmas for several years, my paternal grandparents gifted me with a book from the Oz series. I read each gift-book greedily, from the moment the paper was ripped off of the package. Then, as events grew closer, in anticipation of other books in the series, I read the others over again. Of all the books that I read and re-read as a child--and I read voraciously--these Oz books were the most beloved.So it was with great joy that I stumbled across this gem of a language-learning resource here on Amazon and downloaded it to my Kindle Fire. Translator Wirton Arvel has honed closely to L. Frank Baum's word choices, cadences, and rhythms in crafting this edition. Each page has the original text in English on the left, against a salmon-pink background, and Arvel's Italian translation on the right, against a white background. The layout is visually appealing and allows the reader to focus easily on one language or the other, while referencing the translation with little difficulty. The spacing of both texts has been adjusted so that there is a close match (not always exactly line by line, but very nearly so).Perhaps because I am so deeply familiar with this text in its original English, I've found it to be the perfect choice for enhancing my limited knowledge of Italian. I have learned more vocabulary and grammar from working with this text across the past week than I had learned in a month of working with my other study tools. Probably, I will re-read this book just as often in Italian as I read it in English, for nostalgia's sake;)One of the most interesting and novel features of this bilingual edition: Arvel, the translator, and a team of graphic designers from SignDesignMedia.com, crafted four bilingual "book trailers," which are placed in the front of this edition. The effect of each is similar to that of a movie trailer. The writing here is really quite clever, and the enhancements of W.W. Denslow's much-beloved illustrations are effective as well. Each book trailer really helped to generate interest and anticipation on my part as a reader (even though, as my childhood anecdote indicates, I've read this book many, many times in English). It will be fun to share these book trailers with the middle-school readers I teach and gauge their reactions. i predict the trailers will accomplish their intended purpose!One thing to be mindful of, if you are ordering a translation of this title, is that Arvel's translation is an easier read, grammatically, than the other Italian translations of this book that I have looked at (and there are several other Italian translations here on Amazon). That makes it perfect for a reader such as myself. It is not particularly helpful for me to look at this version of the text while I listen to the Audible audiobook version of the novel, as the Italian translation they use is not Arvel's nor any of the others available here in print on Amazon.I did find out that the entire Oz series has been translated into Italian and published conventionally in print, and one can order the books on Amazon and have them shipped from Italy. These would be Italian-only editions. Thusfar, the only two books in the Oz series that are available in Italian on Kindle are this one (Il Meravlioso Mago di Oz) and The Meravigliosi Mondo di Oz.POSTSCRIPT: I was thrilled to find that Arvel has collaborated on the translation of Alice in Wonderland, and that a bilingual edition of this book is available here on Kindle for download, so I plan to read that next, in the hope that it will be similarly suited to my emerging Italian reading abilities.

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Really good if you want to read the book in two languages. The book has also nice pictures which will help your imagination.

I meant to brush up my Italian and discovered the charm of this tale. Wonderful surprise since i never cared much for the movie and the songs. But the text is pure magic. Very good publication

Uno dice: Mago di Oz, e tutti sanno di cosa si tratta. Tutti tranne me che, fino a pochi giorni fa, non avevo neppure idea di quale fosse la trama di questo classico per bambini. Pare incredibile ma in tutta la vita (già abbastanza lunghetta...) niente mi aveva mai incuriosito intorno a questo libro, nè il film, nè il cartone animato e neppure la versione cantata da Roberto Vecchioni... Fino a quando nel forum di discussione di Amazon un utente ha segnalato questa divertente versione bilingue, scaricabile sul kindle per 0 euro (ora diventati 2,99...ma si può fare!). La storia è affascinante, a partire dal ciclone che scaraventa la piccola Dorothy a grande distanza da casa, per proseguire con il formarsi della buffa combriccola che la accompagnerà nelle sue avventure attraverso i regni delle fate buone e cattive, nel mondo di Oz. Il mago di Oz, meschino, non ha un ruolo pari alla sua fama: è piuttosto un ciarlatano, che si fa passare per quello che non è. Ben più interessanti i co-protagonisti, alla ricerca di un cervello (lo Spaventapasseri), di un cuore (il Boscaiolo di Latta), del coraggio (il Leone Codardo), tutte cose che già posseggono ma che solo la ricerca di sè farà riaffiorare alla loro coscienza. Un bel libro, molto godibile in questa versione bilingue, facilmente seguibile sul kindle ma ancor meglio su uno schermo a colori, che mostra al meglio anche le bellissime immagini originali, disegnate da W.W. Denslow.Penso che acquisterò altre fiabe in questo formato bilingue, mano a mano che il curatore Wirton Arvel le vorrà pubblicare.

La storia è conosciutissima, molti film e musical la ripropongono ma sicuramente il più conosciuto è il film del 1939 diretto da Victor Fleming con Judy Garland nella parte di Dorothy e l'indimenticabile brano "Over the Rainbow" a farne colonna sonora.Il viaggio di Dorothy con il cagnolino Toto e i suoi amici mi è rimasto nel cuore e l'ho riletta molto volentieri.Questo testo in inglese, con traduzione a fronte, è disponibile sia in cartaceo che in formato digitale: quattro racconti illustrati fanno da introduzione al testo vero e proprio con, questa volta, illustrazioniin testa ad ogni capitolo. Veramente molto utile per un approccio alla lettura in lingua originale sia per chi ha iniziato a studiare l'inglese sia a chi se lo è dimenticato un pò come nel mio caso.

Very useful for developing vocabulary and reading skills. I have the English/Italian version. This is also a very charming story.