Dorothy is a farm girl from Kansas. She is lonely and dreams of a better place, so she plans to run away. During a tornado she is transported to a land "beyond the rainbow" where she meets magical characters. After lots of adventures she and her friends are rewarded by the Wizard of Oz and she is enabled to go back home to Kansas.

The Express Publishing Showtime Readers is a brand new series of books at four levels, which introduce students to classic children´s stories in English, using a unique approach with special emphasis on dramatisation. Students first enjoy the story as a reading text in several two-page episodes with beautiful illustrations. Each episode is accompanied by language activities to help comprehension and consolidate learning. The same story is then brought to life as a complete musical play which students can perform at the end of the school year. Each reader includes a biography of the author, a brief summary of the plot, character descriptions and a picture dictionary.