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The Phantom Tollbooth (Essential Modern Classics)

Norton Juster,

Diana Wynne Jones (Introduction)

4.16 · Rating details · 262,095 ratings · 10,891 reviews

In this classic children's tale, Milo sets off through the tollbooth he finds in his bedroom and away on a magical journey to such places as the Land of Expectation, the Mountains of Ignorance and the Castle in the Air. He meets the weirdest folk, such as the Threadbare Excuse, who mumbles the same thing over and over again. ...more

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Paperback, 256 pages

Published 2008 by HarperCollins (first published 1961)

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Oct 13, 2015 Patrick rated it liked it · review of another edition

I just finished this book with my oldest boy. I've been reading a chapter or two out loud to him every night when we can manage it.

I never read The Phantom Tollbooth before, so it had no particular nostalgic appeal to me. But I'd heard about it, and it was in my house (somehow) so I decided to give it a try.

Here's the short version: Meh.

It's not awful. But it wasn't great, either.

Overall, I found reading it to be a bit of a slog. When thinking ahead to reading time at night, I want to be exci ...more

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Mark B. Epstein Patrick - I want to start by saying that I read with great interest your review. While I disagree with many of your points, I thank you for your clear ...more
Apr 20, 2021 10:33AM

Emma Bailey I gave this book to my 9 year old to read yesterday and he’s almost finished it. His opinion was that the book was good but he felt bored reading it, ...more
May 06, 2021 02:30PM

Jul 29, 2017 karen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mg-rereads-2017

JULY

as part of my personal reading challenges for 2017, once a month i will be revisiting a favorite book from when i was a little bitty karen and seeing if it holds up to my fond memories and determining if i can still enjoy it as an old and crotchety karen.

fingers crossed.

so: first things first. in answer to the question 'does this book hold up?' here’s what’s weird. i have no memory of reading this book as a kid. i know i read it - i remember all of jules feiffer’s illustrations and i have st ...more

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Jun 12, 2012 jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

‘welcome to the island of conclusions!’
‘but how did we get here…?’ wondered milo.
‘you jumped, of course!’ explained canby.

i must have read this book for the first time when i was about 9 or 10 and i will forever attribute it to how my love of words, puns, and silly idioms began. its a major part of my sense of humour, one that started developing with this story. and the wordplay in this is even more enjoyable as an adult.

there are many reasons why reading childrens literature past childhood is ...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Marie Lu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I don't remember much about this book, except that I loved it to pieces, and that the subtraction stew always made me really hungry. ...more

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May 12, 2007 Lisa (not getting friends updates) Vegan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: children's lit fans, people who love words

Shelves: favorites, reviewed, fiction, readbooks-male-author-or-illust, childrens, novel, speculative-fiction, 1-also-at-librarything, dogs, z1961

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

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Jul 23, 2018 Ahmed Ejaz rated it really liked it

Shelves: full-lengths, 2018

You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry.

After a long time, this is the first children book I've read. It's a good book. I read this book because of its amazing cover. And the fact that it's my cousin's course book. She lent it to me and I read it in three sittings. And loved it!

It's the story of a bored child, Milo who doesn't find anything interesting in the real world. One day he gets Phantom Tollbooth as present which allows him to go to the ...more

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Aug 27, 2013 Mia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-of-my-childhood, fun, made-me-think, travels-and-wanderers, books-with-pictures

I am a reader, and I measure my life in books, and the ones that I read in my very early years were probably the most formative. You can learn a lot about a person by what their childhood was like- whether they played outside all the time or preferred to stay indoors, whether they read or didn't, whether they drew or played sports or learned instruments and languages.

I, for one, loved words. I read many books with large words in them, and so I was always asking my mother what they meant, or look I am a reader, and I measure my life in books, and the ones that I read in my very early years were probably the most formative. You can learn a lot about a person by what their childhood was like- whether they played outside all the time or preferred to stay indoors, whether they read or didn't, whether they drew or played sports or learned instruments and languages.

I, for one, loved words. I read many books with large words in them, and so I was always asking my mother what they meant, or looking them up in the dictionary, or trying to just guess. I loved long words, short words, words that were fun to say. I would spell them, write them down, sometimes just say them aloud in strings of total gibberish. Even as a child, I remember being amazed that I could make sounds with my mouth that other people could recognise and understand. The idea that I could say the word "apple," which really is an odd word when you look at it long enough, and that somebody else would know exactly what I was referring to was thrilling.

I used to play a word association game I made up where I would think of a word, then think of a word associated with that word, then a word associated with that word, and on and on until I either tried to get back to the word I started with or tried to see how far I could deviate from my original word. So a game might start with the word "pencil" and go from there to "paper," "bag," "rag," "towel," "trowel," "garden," "green," "leaf," "tree," "wood," "paper." Or I might start with "pencil" and go to "lead," "bed," "jumping," "kangaroo," "pouch," "couch," "sofa," "soda," "bubbles." This all took place in my brain, and sometimes I'd just sit in my room for hours and do this. (I would be lying if I said I didn't still do it occasionally.)

I loved books, too. I loved the idea that somebody could put words down on paper and that I could create a world in my mind based off of those words. From a young age, I followed characters, tried to predict plots, and lived in that lovely world somewhere between reality and imagination that we call literature.

All of this boils down to the fact that, to me, language was a playground. I'd make up words, speak backwards, sometimes go whole stretches of time just spelling out words instead of speaking, like "H-E-L-L-O (space) M-O-M (comma) H-O-W (space) A-R-E (space) Y-O-U (space) D-O-I-N-G (question mark)?" Punctuation, spelling, even fonts and typeface and foreign languages- everything related to words was something I was fond of.

And it all started with The Phantom Tollbooth.

Well, not exactly. I'd been doing a lot of this stuff even before I read the book, but The Phantom Tollbooth really helped to make these qualities stick with me.

Why? Because I felt the way I do whenever I find a great book: that I'm not alone. Norton Juster, through wordplay and illustrations and wit, showed me that language, and, to an even greater extent, knowledge, was a wonderful thing. As I read this book and travelled among the Whether Man, Princess Rhyme and Princess Reason, the Mathemagician, and King Azaz the Unabridged, as I read riddles and jokes and equations and utter nonsense and wise advice and snatches of song, as I ventured with Milo and Tock into the Doldrums and the Lands Beyond, to Dictionopolis and Digitopolis and up over the Mountains of Ignorance, I recognised myself in all of these things, and each one of them told me that I wasn't weird for loving language and reading compulsively and making up words and collecting utterly useless facts. Or more accurately, they told me that I was weird- but that there aren't enough weird people in the world who commit themselves to these things, so it was okay.

You can learn a lot about a person based on the books on their bookshelf: whether they're pristine or worn, whether they're organised or not, whether they've got notes written in the margins or flowers pressed between the covers or the signatures of authors. And if you were to look at my pitifully small bookshelf (the rest of my books reside in two enormous stacks by my bed), you would find a worn, torn, stained, and utterly beloved copy of The Phantom Tollbooth. And perhaps you would be able to tell, just by looking at it, that it taught me one of the most important lessons I've learned: that imagination is a beautiful thing, and even if you think that you're too old for things like word games and math equations and fun facts and puns and stories- things, in short, that bring you knowledge and delight, even if you think you've outgrown them... Deep down, they will never outgrow you. ...more

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Jul 30, 2007 Shivani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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 always goes t 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 always goes through. But on this particular day, he arrives home to find a tollbooth waiting to transport him to a faraway place. Soon, Milo is traveling through the Kingdom of Wisdom, seeking to rescue Rhyme and Reason with the help of his companions, Tock the Watchdog and the Humbug.

Along the way, Milo meets some interesting and clever characters, such as the Whether Man (not to be confused with the Weather Man, "for after all it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be") and Kakofonous Dischord, Doctor of Dissonance, whom Milo meets on the outskirts of the Valley of Sound. Page after page, Juster's clever puns and witty plays on words make his characters memorable and his storyline entertaining.

On his journey, Milo travels to several places within the Kingdom of Wisdom, learning useful things along the way. In Dictionopolis, for instance, he discovers the abundance of words and the importance of choosing the right word for the right occasion. On his way to Digitopolis, a land ruled by numbers, Milo ends up on the Island of Conclusions. There, he decides to himself, "From now on, I'm going to have a very good reason before I make up my mind about anything," and he learns that "you can lose too much time jumping to Conclusions."

Armed with the knowledge he has gathered on his journey through the Kingdom, Milo finally reaches the Mountains of Ignorance, where he and his faithful companions dodge and outwit various demons and ultimately save the princesses Rhyme and Reason. In the end, Milo is transported back to the present with a newfound curiosity about the world and a greater appreciation for learning.

Juster's humor throughout the story is at times subtle, at times downright silly, but often clever and thought-provoking, making this book an enjoyable read for young and old alike. They say there's a child in all of us, and The Phantom Tollbooth truly is a children's book for all ages. ...more

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Jun 25, 2014 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: children, newbery-medal-and-honor, read-aloud-in-the-library

"RESULTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED, BUT IF NOT PERFECTLY SATISFIED, YOUR WASTED TIME WILL BE REFUNDED."

That is the promise the boy Milo receives when he embarks on a hilarious adventure to rescue two princesses named Rhyme and Reason in a fantasy land beyond the Phantom Tollbooth, which he explores with a colourful bunch of characters. At the beginning of the story, Milo is a bored young man who does not care much for anything, and can't see any point in learning, discarding knowledge and understandin ...more

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Nov 17, 2015 Calista rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-fantasy, genre-comedy, wordsmith, bage-middle-grade, 1960s, groundbreaking, classic, own, x-surreal, z-norton-juster

This was a joy to read again. It's amazing how much of this had faded from my memory since childhood.

Norton takes all these common phrases and ideas and puts them together in a way that makes them feel absurd. He remakes them. This is a great book for kids starting out their reading journey. It sparks the imagination about words. I loved the dictionopolis. That was amazing. Words are important and this book encourages a curiosity about language and words and how things can be used. It is a fun l ...more

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Aug 05, 2013 Brian Yahn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

The Phantom Tollbooth is--without doubt--the funnest book I've ever read. Not only did I love this book as a kid, but I love it even more the older I get.

It has enough of a save-the-princess plot to hold your attention, a cast of Pixar-like zany characters, and it's set in a world so riddled with puns it's unbelievably fun.

From the way the tollbooth mysteriously arrives, to the way it takes Milo to a strange new world, to the quest he ends up on to save the princesses Rhyme and Reason, to how he ...more

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Nov 25, 2014 emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, recommend, funny, that-setting-tho, reread, 5-stars, reviewed, children-s, beautifully-written, classics

Is this the cleverest book of all time? I think this is the cleverest book of all time.

I so deeply enjoyed rereading this. When I was younger, I would only keep books that I would reread over and over - and I would pick up each one, seriously, an average of 4 to 6 times. I believe this absolute insanity is why I was unable to reread for the subsequent, like, 6 years. But now we're BACK. And it's been a mixed bag, but rereading this was just the greatest.

There were so many puns and allusions and ...more

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Sep 20, 2007 Katie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: children who like wordplay

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 particular age gro ...more

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May 08, 2012 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-childrens

Reading "grown-up" literature is excavating the human soul, the adult soul: a mangled mess of contradictions and self-deceptions, screwy motives and the odd self-adherent logic of artistic creation. But Literature (capital ell) is a pyrrhic battle between message and evasion: one must avoid moralizing outright, must avoid overt allegory, but must never be too subtle, too veiled, lest you be resigned to snobby undergrabs and many rubbish bins. The Phantom Tollbooth is a strange beast: decidedly a Reading "grown-up" literature is excavating the human soul, the adult soul: a mangled mess of contradictions and self-deceptions, screwy motives and the odd self-adherent logic of artistic creation. But Literature (capital ell) is a pyrrhic battle between message and evasion: one must avoid moralizing outright, must avoid overt allegory, but must never be too subtle, too veiled, lest you be resigned to snobby undergrabs and many rubbish bins. The Phantom Tollbooth is a strange beast: decidedly accessible to children, but remains lovable to adults. It's championing of the struggle against moral short-cuts, boredom, and mental waste is timeless, ageless, and remains prescient, even to me: a grown person 52 years after it's publication!

My grandmother has always said: "only boring people get bored" - I am guilty of sometimes serving this packaged wit cold when a friend laments "I'm bored!" but I think forcefully throwing this book at them would be a better remedy. What is signifed in my grandmother's aphorism is that interested people are interesting, and more importantly are never idle. My family (paternal side) is a hard-working, conservative, New Englander family: we don't watch much television, we read lots of books, we listen to NPR and read the Wall Street Journal, we somewhat self-indulgently talk about the cultural decline in literacy and how we are not a part of it. But the story of Milo is one which is both entertaining, lovable, but also cautionary. By no means is Milo a bad child, a dull idler, but rather he has not found passion yet. He is bored because his urban living, his deadening routine has stayed access to the bliss of potentiality.

The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort.

We are plagued, as a modern, urban society by the two-headed monster of routine. Routine comforts us, it gives us an escape into the dull and Terrible Trivium: the small tasks which comfort us and distract us from important, difficult work and choices. Our society is filled with spineless and indecisive people (the Gelatinous Giant) and those who feed us half-truths, who coddle us into a mire, into a trap (Monster of Insincerity): they are not villains, and these flaws do not define all people, but are characteristic in turn. Our weaknesses, our daemons, are our horrible defenses, our cozy citadels in the mountains of Ignorance. It is not the absence of bad habits (hours of dull television, bad reading or no reading) that marks an individual's decline, but rather the presence, the support, of our defenses. The demons of the mountains of Ignorance are impotent without our compliance, they feed on our weakness for what is easy. If we allow the glittering sovereigns of Rhyme and Reason to go fugitive in their empyrean prison, we lose our grip on true happiness, we become boring, we become easily bored.

Thankfully, there is nothing boring in The Phantom Tollbooth: its play with language is unrivaled certainly in children/young-adult literature, and rivals even the masters of play (Joyce, Nabokov, etc) in the grander schema. With a dual reverence for words and numbers, rhyme and reason, and a prevailing apotheosis of time, beyond the value of currency: something never to be wasted, Juster champions all forms of mental activity and cerebral play. I can imagine no better way to introduce a bored student, particularly one ahead of his class, to the ever-infinite vistas of imagination and invention than to hand him or her this book.

“It has been a long trip," said Milo, climbing onto the couch where the princesses sat; "but we would have been here much sooner if I hadn't made so many mistakes. I'm afraid it's all my fault."

"You must never feel badly about making mistakes," explained Reason quietly, "as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”
...more

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Dec 21, 2009 Peter added it · review of another edition

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 journey out of ...more

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Dec 01, 2019 Diane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens

I saw "The Phantom Tollbooth" on a list of beloved children's books, and realized I had somehow missed it when I was a kid. I listened to the audio version, narrated by actor Rainn Wilson, and thought it was delightful. The book is filled with clever wordplay and has good advice on the importance of not jumping to conclusions and watching your words (otherwise you may have to eat them!) Highly recommended.

Favorite Quotes
"Everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best."

"The mo ...more

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Nov 28, 2007 Mariel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: mathletes

Recommended to Mariel by: puny punners

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 appeared to take me away (at least that ...more

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Mar 09, 2019 Jonathan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reading-list-for-oscar

Up there in the ranks of all time great kids books

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Oct 25, 2011 Alex rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Norton Juster lived around the block from me when I was a kid. We all steered clear of his house because our parents told us he was a miserable bastard.

That's not true; when I asked my mom about it last year she was horrified. She said he was a really nice man and she has no idea where I got that terrible but clear memory.

Anyway, I read this like fifty times when I was a kid and is there an Italo Calvino fan in the world who didn't start with this, the child's introduction to metafiction? ...more

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Jan 26, 2010 Gaijinmama rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, favorites, kids

This is an all-time favorite of mine.
My fifth-grade teacher, Miss Shannon, read it to the class chapter by chapter, and I was so absorbed in the story I cajoled my grandma into buying me a copy so I wouldn't have to wait for the next day's reading time. I recently re-read it with my kids and they loved it, too. The humor (downright Monty Python-esque in places) and vocabulary was a bit over their heads, but they still got into it. Seriously, what's not to love about a talking dodecahedron?
Highly ...more

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Jul 06, 2009 Katie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, favorites, fantasy, young-adult

"In this box are all the words I know," he said. "Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the right places."

"And remember also," added the Princess of Sweet R "In this box are all the words I know," he said. "Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the right places."

"And remember also," added the Princess of Sweet Rhyme, "that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you'll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow."

When I started to re-read The Phantom Tollbooth a few weeks ago, I was very excited, but I was also a little bit nervous. I have a special, uncritical reverence for this book, the sort that you can only really have for books you read when you were very young. I remember every picture in this book, and I remember it being filled with words and numbers and quite a lot of joy. It was lovely. I was afraid that a re-read as an adult would leave me feeling as if it wasn't as good as I remembered (or, maybe worse, that I've just grown up into a grumpy cynic).

But instead I was greeted with the pleasant surprise that The Phantom Tollbooth is still wonderful, and - without me realizing it, really - I think it had a huge determining course on who I wound up being as a person. I can't tell you how many times I came across sections that I probably didn't even entirely understand the first time through, but which are now really central and important to me. The second quote up there is pretty much a longer version of one of my absolute favorite quotes as an adult.

The Phantom Tollbooth is funny and sad and hopeful. There are loads of puns that should be kind of dumb, but instead are endearing and fun. It's full of reverence for words and their potential power, and its just imbued all the way through with a wonder for absolutely everything in the world. Go read it! It's the best. ...more

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Jul 18, 2016 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: american-20th-c, kids, favorites

This is such a wonderful book about Milo and the Watchdog and his incredible adventures through both language and mathematics. Full of inventive language and puns, it makes me sad that Norton Juster didn't write more children's books. This on is abfab and a must! ...more

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Mar 01, 2016 Wastrel rated it liked it

Apparently a classic in the US; I wanted to read it because I vaguely remembered snippets of it - I think I must have read it at a library or the like.

In the end, I could see why it might be loved by some children - those fascinated by language, in particular. And why, with its combination of whimsy and morality, it might be a subject of nostalgia among adults, even among those who may not have loved it as much as they remember in childhood.

Because I can also see why I didn't love it - why I va Apparently a classic in the US; I wanted to read it because I vaguely remembered snippets of it - I think I must have read it at a library or the like.

In the end, I could see why it might be loved by some children - those fascinated by language, in particular. And why, with its combination of whimsy and morality, it might be a subject of nostalgia among adults, even among those who may not have loved it as much as they remember in childhood.

Because I can also see why I didn't love it - why I vaguely remembered it, fondly, but never had my own copy, never even remembered the name or the author until my memory was jogged. An 'Alice' for the modern world, it's less strange and more superficial than Carroll's work: essentially it's a moral-political treatise (the modern non-spiritual world is filled with nonsense and chaos because we have lost our sense of Rhyme and Reason, which must be restored to bring about a spiritual reawakening of modern America, as we each improve ourselves, transforming ourselves into a heroic ideal of Manhood in much the same way that children themselves must grow up; also, it's all the fault of science and immigrants), liberally sweetened with continual puns. Some of them are quite clever puns, and the Moral Message is less aggressive and more heartwarmingly, platitudinously encouraging (and safely vague and non-specific) when taken over the course of a novel than when reduced in summary. But...

I'm not really sure who the book is for. Young children who are not obsessed with language will probably find the continual wordplay going over their head, and the Message a tad too subtle to spot. Adults who appreciate the Message and understand the jokes (if that's what we're to call them) are likely to be left unsatisfied by the superficiality, and lack of plot or pacing, and the lack even by the standards of children's novels of any sort of characterisation.

Apparently the book was written to appeal to nostalgia, and that might be its niche: those who want to immerse themselves in a nostalgic romance of Lost Childhood - particular those for whom that childhood once included this book. Perhaps it's a book that children are encouraged to read so that they can feel nostalgic about it later...

Slightly more extensive review over on my blog. ...more

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Dec 05, 2019 TS Chan rated it it was amazing

Recommended to TS by: Celeste

Shelves: physical-owned, classics

The Phantom Tollbooth is an essential classic for children and adults alike. An immensely clever and fun read, which was filled with wordplay. The entire story was like a huge, well-written pun. I absolutely loved every second of it.

I would like to thank my lovely book-twin, Celeste for introducing and gifting me with this wonderful book. ...more

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May 09, 2020 Skip rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Norton Juster's 1960's classic, The Phantom Tollbooth is an all-time favorite of mine. It is a gem -- a book for the ages, all of them. It is chock full of wisdom. Every time you read it, you find something meaningful. Sadly, I think the annotated version detracted from the magic of the book, which is an allegory. I had to read each chapter in full, and then go back to read the annotations so as to follow Milo's adventures.

The few annotations I liked by Leonard Marcus were those regarding synes ...more

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Feb 17, 2015 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s-literature, concierge, classic, library, dogs, politics, relationships, philosophy

Illustrations by Jules Feiffer

From the book jacket - Through the Phantom Tollbooth lies a strange land and a series of even stranger adventures in which Milo meets some of the most logically illogical characters ever met on this side or that side of reality, including King Azaz the Unabridged, unhappy ruler of Dictionopolis; the Mathemagician; Faintly Macabre, the not-so-wicked Which; and the watchdog Tock, who ticks.

My Reactions
I’ve been hearing about this book forever, but never read it befor Illustrations by Jules Feiffer

From the book jacket - Through the Phantom Tollbooth lies a strange land and a series of even stranger adventures in which Milo meets some of the most logically illogical characters ever met on this side or that side of reality, including King Azaz the Unabridged, unhappy ruler of Dictionopolis; the Mathemagician; Faintly Macabre, the not-so-wicked Which; and the watchdog Tock, who ticks.

My Reactions
I’ve been hearing about this book forever, but never read it before. I’m so glad I finally got to it! It is an absolute delight. I love Milo – a boy “who didn’t know what to do with himself” – and his spirit of adventure. Boredom may have led him to the Doldrums, but his thinking brain gets him through the magical Kingdom of Wisdom, across the Valley of Sound, up the Mountains of Ignorance to the Castle in the Air, to rescue the imprisoned Princesses Rhyme and Reason and return them to the Kingdom.

What I find particularly delightful is the way Juster plays with words and ideas. Introducing readers (young and old) to some lofty ideas and imparting more than a little wisdom along the way. I kept jotting down quotable passages. For example:

”I never knew words could be so confusing,” Milo said to Tock as he bent down to scratch the dog’s ear. “Only when you use a lot to say a little,” answered Tock.

“…that explains why today people use as many words as they can and think themselves very wise for doing so. For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many.”

“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and [people] took great pleasure in doing just that. Then one day someone discovered that if you walked as fast as possible and looked at nothing but your shoes you would arrive at your destination much more quickly. Soon everyone was doing it. They all rushed down the avenues and hurried along the boulevards seeing nothing of the wonders and beauties of their city as they went.”

“Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet.”

Children will enjoy the adventure and fantastical characters, and hardly notice how their vocabularies are expanding. Adults will enjoy it even more for the intelligent use of words. It’s been over fifty years since this book was first published, but I feel certain it will remain popular for at least another fifty years.

* * * * * * * * * *

Re-read 18July15 and found it just as delightful as the first time! ...more

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Jun 05, 2008 Terence rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone

Shelves: for-the-younger-generation, sf-fantasy

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 can you not love a wor ...more

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Jan 31, 2018 Anu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: children and adults who're even slightly children at heart

Recommended to Anu by: Mia

Shelves: all-the-good-bois, el-clasico, pleasantly-surprised, it-s-a-kind-of-magic, i-think-it-s-funny, travel, humorists, surreal, i-like-em-short, literary-gasm

I love (good) children's books, and this is definitely one of the best I've ever read. My only regret is that I didn't get to enjoy it as a child.

I recommend reading Mia's review, because it's a true work of art, and without it, I would have never learnt about this wonderful little book.

The Phantom Tollbooth is a delightful book full of wordplay, and what incredible wordplay at that! It is a children's book, which not just teaches about numbers and letters and words and responsibility, but I r I love (good) children's books, and this is definitely one of the best I've ever read. My only regret is that I didn't get to enjoy it as a child.

I recommend reading Mia's review, because it's a true work of art, and without it, I would have never learnt about this wonderful little book.

The Phantom Tollbooth is a delightful book full of wordplay, and what incredible wordplay at that! It is a children's book, which not just teaches about numbers and letters and words and responsibility, but I recommend it for all users, young and old. It is full of interesting, absurd, ridiculous characters like the Whether Man, the Watch Dog, kings Azaz and Mathemagician, princesses Rhyme and Reason; as well as fascinating places like the Island of Conclusions and the Valley of Silence. It is full to the brim with puns, alliterations, rhymes and such utterly clever wordplay, I probably literally squealed in delight sometimes.
Take, for instance, part of the Lethargians' schedule:
“From 9:30 to 10:30 we dawdle and delay.
“From 1:00 to 2:00 we linger and loiter.
“From 4:00 to 5:00 we loaf and lounge until dinner.
“From 6:00 to 7:00 we dillydally.

On the way, Milo, the ten year old protagonist, learns many valuable lessons; such as learning to pick his words carefully before speaking, so he can make sense, and understanding the importance of mathematics in life. He also learns that most things in life are only impossible, if one perceives so. He learns about the meaning of sound, and the value of silence. Most of all, he learns to learn from his mistakes. He learns that things we see may not always be as they seem, and that it is important to understand rather than just idly see.

“You must never feel badly about making mistakes,” explained Reason quietly, “as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”

I myself had so much to learn from the book, betwixt all the laughs and the amusement provided by the wordplay. Math, for instance, has always been my Achilles' heel. I'm quite good at it, but highly prone to making silly mistakes. I also have the terrible habit of jumping to conclusions. The vivid imagery provided by this book on both these...elements kind of made me want to work on myself in these aspects. Remember that without Rhyme of Reason, a Castle of Air will always float away. Remember the importance of an Average, and the problems with Overbearing Know-it-All and Gross Exaggeration.

It's a little difficult for me to write anymore than I have, for fear of spoiling this, but I recommend it highly. Read it if you're feeling bored; read it if you're feeling low. Whether a child or an adult, you'll laugh, cry, learn, and be a little bit wiser after you're done. ...more

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Jul 26, 2020 Moonkiszt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure-seeking-consequences, animal-besties, all-will-be-well-never-give-up, childhood-fav, morphing-into-something-else, bffs-here-be, characteristical, grandma-reads-session, eau-de-twilight-zone, language-is-a-character

Featured in grandma reads sessions. . .

This was a joy to read in my youth, and was a joy to read in my oldth. Fantastic!

In my birth family, we kids learned from an early age that claiming "bored" as a status would get you assigned to long work details overseen by Herself (Our-Mother-In-Charge). You had one warning prior - scary, steely and said with brittle cheerfulness: "Boredom is a Choice. Don't make it." If you didn't immediately skulk off to a place where you could clearly exhibit Curiosit ...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Drew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I've always read ravenously, but when I was younger, I didn't really understand the idea of going out and trying to find good books to read. Instead, I'd read the handful of books I had over and over again. Not that I only had a handful. At the head of my bed, there was a compartment maybe two feet wide, one foot deep, and one and a half tall, which was always full of books.* I'd stuff it so tight some of the books would come out warped, and I vaguely remember once having trouble getting any of ...more

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About Norton Juster

Norton Juster

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Norton Juster was an architect and planner, professor emeritus of design at Hampshire College, and the author of a number of highly acclaimed children's books, including The Dot and the Line, which was made into an Academy Award-winning animated film. He collaborated with Sheldon Harnick on the libretto for an opera based on The Phantom Tollbooth. The musical adaptation, with a score by Arnold Bla ...more