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Aug 01, 2011

Lisa rated it:

My mother got this for us when I was 8 and it was first published in 1961. I still own that original edtion and it is not in great shape due to multiple readings. This is as much an adult as a children's book. Although I loved the story right away, it was more meaningful as I got older and I understood all the plays on words and deeper messages. Still worth rereading every decade or so as an adult, and it remains one of my favorite books. It's a very witty book. I'm a sucker for maps, however ba More...

11 comments like (20 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Shivani rated it:

Anyone who has a passion for words and wordplay will enjoy reading The Phantom Tollbooth. In this charming children's book, author Norton Juster takes us on an adventure with his main character Milo, a young boy who enters a chaotic place called the Kingdom of Wisdom and finds that to restore order in the kingdom, he must save the banished princesses Rhyme and Reason.

When the story begins, Milo gets home one afternoon expecting to go through the same humdrum after-school routine he a More...

3 comments like (27 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2011

Terence rated it:

Michael Chabon has written an introduction to a new edition of The Phantom Tollbooth, which is reprinted in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books (June 2011 - you'll need a subscription to read the whole thing), and which prompted a reread.

I will uncritically and unreservedly recommend this book to everyone. It's been my experience that while no singular author or book has ever consciously "blown my mind," many have done so unconsciously, including this one. How More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2010

Mariel rated it:

Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth made me happy. I loved the puns and playfulness. Even a dumb kid like me could appreciate the cool jokes. It's the language of words and numbers in a place that you can actually reach. Not "Learning is fun!" propaganda but "Hurry up, slow poke!" adventure stories in the vein of all the best ones. It's good for you.

I loved that Milo wanted to be away when he was home and away when he was home. No phantom tollbooth ever appear More...

5 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2007

rebecca rated it:

oh man. it's like amelia badelia for halfway-grownups.

here's what i think of when i think of the phantom tollbooth:

-people trying (and failing) to feed themselves with five-foot long spoons
-people having to (but not wanting to) eat their words
-semi-philosophical ideas about time and being and the way people treat themselves and each other*

what a doozy of a book! is it enough to say that i la-la-love it? no? okay, well let me add this: i More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2009

Kelly rated it:

Kind of a cross between Lewis Carroll and Terry Pratchett, this amusing child's fantasy is based on puns and figures of speech taken literally. The story is simplistic enough to amuse children but most of the humor would go right over most children's heads. It's fun for adults, too, as I've learned by re-reading it now. It's a true classic as it's just as entertaining and apt now as when it was written nearly 50 years ago.

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 06, 2007

Katie rated it:

I wasn't as impressed with this book as many of my friends. Perhaps that is because of my high expectations for the book or perhaps because of my preferences in writing style. So those who love this book can use one of those two reasons to blow off my review. However, the fact remains that I was not very interested from page to page, and if not for a commitment to a book group, I am afraid I would not have had any desire to finish it.

In style the book seems to be written for a part More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2007

Kaitlin rated it:

I've read this book many times, starting when I was about nine years old, and never have I been disappointed by it. It's a great story of a young boy, Milo, who just can't get excited about anything in life. One day, Milo embarks on an adventure by driving through a mysterious phantom toolboth that arrives for him through the mail. Through his journey, he learns the importance of thought and learning as he tries to rescue Princesses Rhyme and Reason and restore them to their throne (don't you lo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2009

Peter added it

When he left the Navy, Norton Juster began writing a non-fiction book about urban planning. As an outlet from the grueling work, though, he spent his free time concocting the imaginative scenes that later became The Phantom Tollbooth. One publisher’s advance later, he gave up on the scholarly work and finished The Phantom Tollbooth instead. And we’re all better off for it.

Part Alice in Wonderland, part secular Pilgrim’s Progress, The Phantom Tollbooth takes ten year-old Milo on a More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2009

Harriett rated it:

After the first 50 pages I know this will be on my bedside table for the rest of my life!

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2009

Ben rated it:

Having spent much of this winter in less than wonderful health, I have been happily accepting donations of reading material from friends. One friend, on a lark, dropped off her copy of this old classic, which I last read probably at age 13 or so.

In re-reading it, I was reminded of the ambivalence I had about it on my first read back then. The level of cleverness is indeed impressive, at times dazzling, and for certain there are some fantastically humorous moments. It is also nice to re More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 18, 2008

Kim rated it:

My main problem with it is that part of the book deals with personal demons (like wasting time, having bad habits, etc.) which kept pulling me out of the story and making me think "I should be doing something productive instead of sitting here reading" which was a little annoying! Otherwise a sweet book - I'll have to go back and watch the movie from the beginning now...

8 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 02, 2008

Lstirl rated it:

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Ages 8-12

A classic fantasy that will keep any child from becoming “lost in the doldrums.”

Young , ever- bored Milo, upon finding a child sized tollbooth in his room one day after school, sets out on a surreal adventure into another dimension. Full of puns and double speak, this journey into the imagination is both charming and entertaining. Along the way, he meets such interesting characters as the “Which,” Half-Boy, The More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2009

Heather rated it:

Not only do I love this book, but I just finished reading it to my seven and five and ahalf year old, who now adore it as well. As a matter of fact, instead of beginning another "big kid" book tonight, as planned, they have requested that we start Tollbooth again, which is high praise from two little kids with rather short attention spans. We broke it up into litter sections, sometimes stopping in the middle of a chapter, and it helped to be able to say "Oh, guess what, Next, Mi More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2008

Sarah rated it:

One of the greatest childhood books ever. I still enjoy it.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Ivan rated it:

Someone in a review said “The Phantom Tollbooth” was their first favorite book. Oh, how I wish I could make that claim [mine was “The Story of Babar”].

I didn’t start “really” reading until I was late into my teens; and so, with a few exceptions like E. B. White and Beverly Cleary, I didn’t read children’s literature – nothing in the independent readers or young adult genres. A few months ago I resolved to remedy that sad fact by reading those books I skipped while growing up. More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 21, 2011

Emily rated it:

This book is: Fantastic! Marvelous! Fabulous! Stupendous! Incredible! Thus would be the reaction of the cabinet of King Azaz the Unabridged of the Kingdom of Dictionopolis. In The Phantom Tollbooth, we find the meaning of such statements as “It goes without saying”, and “Half-baked ideas”. We learn what might be the best kind of sentence you can get from a police officer. We are taught the rules of The Doldrums: one being that you’re only allowed to smile slightly every other Thursday. More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 22, 2008

lisa z rated it:

last summer i took ramona and levi on our first road trip, we drove from chicago to the appalachian mountains to visit several of our best friends. on our way back we stopped to visit the ever lovely randy and trish. trish loaned this book to ramona who sat in the sun in her swimming suit and damn near completed it in one sitting. trish told us that it was her favorite book from childhood and that she re-read it every few summers. ramona raved about it and read parts aloud to me and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 01, 2008

Marielle rated it:

A wonderful book based on a world of pure imagination that yet can be compared to your own day to day basis. This magnificent story is basically about a boy named Milo who will always be willing to quit school and can't help surviving all of those boring afternoons in his house doing exactly what is called nothing. Until one day he gets to his tedious room and finds a little car that will take him to a place that will soon become his only paradise. This world helps him escape from his du More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2008

Snorkle rated it:

Milo is bored with living, he rushes to get places but once he is there he wonders why he even bothered. He can't seem to help that he finds everything so droll. That changes when he finds a mysterious tollbooth kit and decides that since he has nothing better to do he will build it, and that is when the real adventure begins.

From the very first sentence of this book I was hooked. I knew that this was exactly the sort of book that I would enjoy and I absolutely loved all the phrase More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 17, 2007

sal rated it:

I read THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH in the sixth grade in my English class, and I hated it. I remember thinking that it was the most ridiculous book I had ever read, and I felt that every moment of it was a waste of my time.

When I went to college, my math education professor kept using this book as an example of how to bring literature into our mathematics classroom. Since I remembered hating the book so much, I never took the time to re-read it.

For some reason, this summer, I More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2008

Marissa. rated it:

Really, I learned so many things.
Every single chapter has a lesson. A moral. And no cheesy moral, either. Something to get your gears in your mind really turning.
Somehow, Norton takes phrases and ideas and is able to create a world where he can make them quite literal.
A great book for all ages. That is, if adults can enjoy the lack of vulgarity and sex humor.
Philosophy is many things, but it is also a quest of knowledge.
I find that of many things, this book insp More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 31, 2007

Gail rated it:

I can clearly remember being fascinated by this book when my 5th grade class read it. The basic moral of the story can be as simple or complex as you want to make it--the gems are the lessons in perspective and interpretation that Milo, the main character, gets along the way. And of course, the bevy of fantastic characters, good and evil: King Azaz of Dictionopolis, the Mathmagician of Digitopolis, the Senses Taker (still makes me chuckle), the Spelling Bee and the Humbug...

I have More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 08, 2009

Tucker rated it:

This is one of the best books ever.I like it because some of the things in there are really funny and weird and awesome at the same time,i really think everyone should read this book. it rocks

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 21, 2009

John rated it:

If you have children, you have to read this book to them. It is so much fun and the story is a great adventure. Then, when they get older, it's even more fun when they read it themselves.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Sep 29, 2010

Bettie rated it:

This was not part of my youth. English junior schools tended towards their own writers 'back then'. I have a feeling that Jasper FForde must have grown up on it!

Anyway, this is what I have been listening to this morning and it wasn't at all what I was expecting; I was looking towards a gothic tale along the lines of Sleepy Hollow, all galloping horses and duster coats flapping in the slipstream. Instead I come across a lexiconigraphical version of Bunyan's Pilgim's Progress.

More...

2 comments like

Jul 16, 2007

Miund rated it:

I just realized that this fantastic book was first published way in 1961. I was born almost twenty years afterwards, read it almost twelve years later and it's still relevant. I guess Milo travels beyond time and space, along with the whimsical characters in the book. Heard about its play but never saw it ever before and I'm intrigued. I'm so getting this book again for my kid -I lost mine to Jakarta's heavy flood in the eighties, cried like a baby because my mother brought it all the way fr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 14, 2009

Drew rated it:

Humbug!!! Confusion in the Market Place! The Doldrums! Half-baked ideas! My kind of place!!!!!!!!!!

It was impossible.

Completely impossible.

Delightful read!

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Sep 10, 2007

Theresa rated it:

I cannot believe that my entire childhood passed and no one shared this book. Originally published in 1961 by the author of one of my favorite picture books, The Hello Goodbye Window, this book is a timeless treasure!! Milo is bored and thinks he learns nothing in school when he comes home to a Phantom Tollbooth that takes him on many adventures! Full of wonderful word choice and life lessons, it is probably more appropriate for adults than children, but I would try parts of it with students fr More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Stella rated it:

I remember being in a "play group" as a kid with other kids from my kindergarten/1st grade class and we'd go over to my teacher's house and she'd take us to the park and we'd play, swim etc. And then we'd go back and have story time. She read us books such as The Hobbit, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, and every Shel Silverstein book you can think of. One story time she read us The Phantom Toll Booth and I've loved that book to this day. Looking back it was probably one of the tripp More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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