RSSThe Phantom Tollbooth
May 24th, 2006 | View Comments
Author: Norton Juster
Publisher: Yearling
Rating: 
Buy The Phantom Tollbooth on Amazon.com
Although Milo stops by Digitopolis, the city of numbers, this book is really for people who love playing with words. Clever puns (and a few groaners) whiz by a mile a minute, even in the middle of the Doldrums.
This book is about a boy who goes on a journey from being utterly bored with life to seeing all the fantastic things worth living for. Milo and his car, a dog, and a bug find themselves jumping to conclusions, upsetting applecarts, enduring aural assaults, and attempting to reach infinity as they try to return Rhyme and Reason to the land.
The Phantom Tollbooth is written at a level that’s accessible to children; it was one of my favorite books growing up. There were many times as a child that I wished a tollbooth would magically show up in my bedroom and that I too could journey into the Lands Beyond. My love of this book grew right along with me and now that I’m an adult, I can fully appreciate the brilliance of characters like the Humbug, Officer Short Shrift, Faintly Macabre, and the .58 child.
Or this passage, which completely went over my head when I was a kid.:
“How are you going to make it move? It doesn’t have a -”
“Be very quiet,” advised the duke, “for it goes without saying.”
And, sure enough, as soon as they were all quite still, it began to move quickly through the streets, and in a very short time they arrived at the royal palace.”
“For it goes without saying.” Hee! Awesome!
I still reach for this book now and then; it always provides an evening or two of light reading and quality entertainment. Even though I’ve read The Phantom Tollbooth umpteen times, it’s still something of an adventure as I discover jokes and meaning previously buried in the text. Plus, travelling with Milo is a great way to clear out a few mental cobwebs, lift your spirits, and find that things are worth doing again.
Buy The Phantom Tollbooth on Amazon.com
Yvonne posted this on May 24th, 2006 @ 10:42pm in Book Reviews | Permalink to "The Phantom Tollbooth"
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