THE ANNOTATED PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Norton Juster,Jules Feiffer | 284 pages | 25 Oct 2011 | Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers | 9780375857157 | English | New York, NY, United States The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth | Reading Rockets

But we solved it: "I'm possible", we wrote underneath. It is one of my favourite memories of reading with students, and I highly recommend the book to grown-ups and children alike: if you are not satisfied, after all, wasted time will be refunded! Nov 17, Calista rated it really liked it Shelves: classic , own , x-surreal , groundbreaking , genre-fantasy , genre-comedy , wordsmith , s , bage-middle-grade , 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 This was a joy to read again. It is a fun little middle grade read that I'm so glad is still around. I did listen to this in the car on my way to school and I can't remember many of the wonderful quotes from characters I would love to put down here and comment on. Rhyme and Reason are important in this book and without them we do see what a mess the world can be. I also enjoy how the Phantom Tollbooth just appears and disappears without ever explaining who are what sent it. It just is. I found that refreshing. This should be school reading or on a reading list at school. This also reminds me so much of Alice and Wonderland and the absurdity of the characters we meet in this strange land. Milo is simply trying to figure things out. It's the closest thing to it that I know of. It is a sharp witted little story and it's easy to see how it came out of the 60s era. I had fun reading it. Aug 05, Brian Yahn rated it it was amazing 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 The Phantom Tollbooth is--without doubt--the funnest book I've ever read. 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 ultimately returns home--this story never stops surprising, never stops intriguing, and definitely--not for a word-- does it stop being fun. View all 4 comments. Nov 25, emma rated it it was amazing Shelves: funny , that-setting-tho , owned , recommend , classics , children-s , beautifully-written , 5-stars , reviewed , reread. 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 Is this the cleverest book of all time? There were so many puns and allusions and metaphors I didn't understand the first eleven times I read it, so they made rereading this like a whole new experience. I read it in a sitting! It was such a blast. God, I want to drop a visit to the Lands Beyond so badly. Don't you guys wish you could jump into books, just for a hot second? Or, at the very least, a mysterious tollbooth would be given to you to grant you passage into a mysterious kingdom filled with puns. I mean, come on. This is only going to be a mini review because I don't even know how much I can joke about this book. I have a major soft spot for it, okay?! We all have our things. Bottom line: Totally give this book a try. It's compelling, and clever, and short, and the characters are so cute, and the setting is so fascinating and creative and fun and amazing, and the whole thing will stick to ya like glue. I'll never be able to escape this book, and I'm not mad about it. View 2 comments. Sep 20, Katie rated it it was ok 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 I wasn't as impressed with this book as many of my friends. In style the book seems to be written for a particular age group ranging from , depending on the vocabulary and maturity of the reader. And, for the preteen sense of humor, the wordplay was appropriate and would be quite funny to the intended audience. However, the wordplay was really the only interesting aspect to the book, and I'm tempted to say as much for the joke books my niece reads to me. The plot was simple and was secondary to both the wordplay and the multiple morals of the story. In fact, a new moral was introduced with every chapter some chapters containing more than one moral , and each chapter was only a few short pages long. This was the main drawback to the book. Not to say that morals aren't important in a work, but too many morals are detracting. Introducing, then immediately leaving a moral behind decreases the likeliness that it will be remembered once the book is finished. My other main problem with the book was the lack of description to help the reader enjoy the fantastical and quite creative world Juster introduces. Here one moment, and there the next, the reader is left wondering How did Milo find his car again he was lost only a moment ago? Where are they? What do they see? This book, whose main moral is to teach a child to notice the world around them, simply forgot to take a look around. The spectacular scene with Chroma and his orchestra being the exception. Overall, an interesting book, leaps and bounds above the other children's literature of Juster's contemporaries, but not my favorite. View all 8 comments. May 08, David rated it really liked it 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. 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! 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. 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. I'm afraid it's all my fault. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons. View all 5 comments. Dec 21, 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. In Dictionopolis and Digitopolis Milo discovers the value of words and numbers; on the Mountain of Ignorance he learns that knowledge can fight off inattention and indulgence; in the Doldrums, he avoids ennui by thinking; and through it all, he discovers that a little attention reveals wondrous details in everything around him. But the real pleasure of it is the whip-smart wordplay. And, not all puns are created equal. Still, they're puns, and we have to love them. But these are tiny complaints. In the interview at the end of the audiobook read by David Hyde Pierce , Juster says that many of the demons in the story— like the terrible Trivium, who waylays us with inane tasks—reflect the challenges that he struggles with in his writing. Do I recommend it? Read it at different times over the course of your life. Would I teach it? It would be fun. Lasting impressions: I first read The Phantom Tollbooth in the third grade, and though I only remembered excerpts from it before revisiting it recently, looking back at it now, I wonder if it was the most formative experience of my childhood. Dec 01, Diane rated it really liked it 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. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in the pond; and whenever you're sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer. Nov 28, Mariel rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: mathletes. 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! 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 Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth made me happy. No phantom tollbooth ever appeared to take me away at least that wasn't in this book. I'd probably have gone on the adventure and then pined the rest of my days for another one I was really good at missing the point of these kinds of stories. Have fun at home? Make friends at home? In my lower self-esteem moments I'll still identify with The Terrible Trivium. I'm probably weird They made us watch the cartoon in elementary school. I started my infamous "s cartoon walk" in part because of this. Too bad it wasn't actually from the '70s. I suck. And I never tagged this under "dogs" "myonlyfriend", duh! I really do suck. I'm sorry, Tock! View all 9 comments. Jan 26, Gaijinmama rated it it was amazing Shelves: kids , favorites , fiction. 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 This is an all-time favorite of mine. Highly recommended for adults and kids over perhaps age 8, or younger if you are reading it to them. Mar 09, Jonathan rated it it was amazing Shelves: reading-list-for-oscar. Up there in the ranks of all time great kids books. Jul 06, Katie rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , fantasy , young- adult , fiction. 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. 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. 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. View all 7 comments. Oct 25, Alex rated it it was amazing. 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? Jul 18, Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing Shelves: kids , favorites , americanth-c. 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! 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. 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. 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. 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. Norton Juster's '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 Norton Juster's 's classic, The Phantom Tollbooth is an all-time favorite of mine. The few annotations I liked by Leonard Marcus were those regarding synesthesia and how Norton Juster himself was able to get over his own troubles with numbers by association with colors, how the wonderful chapter entitled Colorful Symphony was almost deleted by the editor, how colors were an important element of psychedelic rock in the late s, Juster's decision not to include the Chocolate Mouse, and how many readers were upset that the Mathemagician's letter to his brother, King Azaz, all in numbers was not written in code. Hopefully, I have spoiled this version so all of you can read the original version, which is a fantastic 5 star read, which I recommend without reservation. Jules Feiffer's classic illustrations have withstood the test of time too. Here are my two favorite quotes in this reading: "For always remember, that while it is wrong to use too few [words], it is often far worse to use too many. Recommended to Anuradha by: Mia. Shelves: all-the-good-bois , i-like-em-short , trippy , uber-cool-villain , masters-of-mystery , travel , surreal , literary-gasm , it-s-a-kind-of-magic , favourites. 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. 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. 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. 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 Remember that without Rhyme of Reason, a Castle of Air will always float away. 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. 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. It is an absolute delight. 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 always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many. 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. They can never manage to make ends meet. Adults will enjoy it even more for the intelligent use of words. Jun 05, Terence rated it it was amazing 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 - 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 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 - you'll need a subscription to read the whole thing , and which prompted a reread. How can you not love a world where you can only get to the island of Conclusions by jumping or where cars go without saying or where the Mathemagician transports our heroes to the Mountains of Ignorance by carrying the three? Like Milo, I can easily fall into apathy and I like to think that my various enthusiasms were sparked by his example. Feb 19, Drew rated it really liked it. 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. At any rate, these were the books I'd read over and over again. I also didn't discriminate much as far as quality. Pretty much any book with lots of words was automatically good, fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, manuals for computer programs, I would seriously read anything that was in the house. Update location. Learn more. Report incorrect product information. Norton Juster. Walmart Out of stock. Book Format. Select Option. Current selection is: Hardcover. Delivery not available. Pickup not available. Add to list. Add to registry. In the 50 years since its original publication, millions of children have breathlessly followed Milo's adventures in the Lands Beyond. Marcus's expansive annotations include interviews with the author and illustrator, illuminating excerpts from Juster's notes and drafts, cultural and literary commentary, and Marcus's own insights on the book. About This Item. We aim to show you accurate product information. Manufacturers, suppliers and others provide what you see here, and we have not verified it. See our disclaimer. The Phantom Tollbooth is a universally beloved childhood classic. Now Leonard Marcus, a nationally acclaimed writer on children's literature, has created a richly annotated edition of this perennial favorite. The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth also includes an introduction that shares the fascinating background on the book's publication--Juster and Feiffer met as young neighbors in Brooklyn, New York, and thus began a fortuitious collaboration on a project that would become an instant classic--as well as its enduring place in the world of children's literature. The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth is the perfect way to honor a classic and will be welcomed by young readers and fans of all ages. The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth also includes an introduction that shares the fascinating background on the book's publication—Juster and Feiffer met as young neighbors in Brooklyn, New York, and thus began a fortuitious collaboration on a project that would become an instant classic—as well as its enduring place in the world of children's literature. Write a review See all reviews Write a review. Average Rating: 5. February 2, See more. Reviewed by bookworm12 bookworm Written by a librarything. April 9, Reviewed by jasbro jasbro. December 10, Reviewed by stormyhearted stormyhearted. Average Rating: 4. August 5, Interesting and useful insights into a great book. Reviewed by Doondeck Doondeck. 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Overview The Phantom Tollbooth is a universally beloved childhood classic. In the 50 years since its original publication, millions of children have breathlessly followed Milo's adventures in the Lands Beyond. Now Leonard Marcus, a nationally acclaimed writer on children's literature, has created a richly annotated edition of this perennial favorite. Marcus's expansive annotations include interviews with the author and illustrator, illuminating excerpts from Juster's notes and drafts, cultural and literary commentary, and Marcus's own insights on the book. The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth also includes an introduction that shares the fascinating background on the book's publication—Juster and Feiffer met as young neighbors in Brooklyn, New York, and thus began a fortuitious collaboration on a project that would become an instant classic—as well as its enduring place in the world of children's literature. The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth is the perfect way to honor a classic and will be welcomed by young readers and fans of all ages. Product Details About the Author. Juster lives with his wife in Western Massachusetts. He has won numerous prizes for his cartoons, plays, and screenplays. Author Interviews Meet your favorite authors and illustrators in our video interviews. Book Finder Create your own booklists from our library of 5, books! Themed Booklists Dozens of carefully selected booklists, for kids years old. Nonfiction for Kids Tips on finding great books, reading nonfiction and more. Skip to main content. You are here Home. Leonard Marcus. Jules Feiffer. Literacy Apps Find the best apps for building literacy skills. Target the Problem Pinpoint the problem a struggling reader is having and discover ways to help. Ready for Kindergarten What parents, teachers and child care providers need to know. Our Podcasts Watch or listen to our classroom video, author interviews and more. The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth - -

The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation credited to Albert P. Einstein and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy. Already have an account? Log in. Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials. Sign Up. Literary criticism. Pub Date: Oct. Page Count: Publisher: Knopf. Review Posted Online: Aug. No Comments Yet. More by Norton Juster. Pub Date: Aug. Page Count: Publisher: Scholastic. Show all comments. More In The Series. More by Dav Pilkey. Marcus Best Seller. Oct 25, ISBN Add to Cart. Also available from:. Hardcover —. Also by Norton Juster. Product Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History. Escape from Aurora. Jamie Littler. Lyn Sisson-Talbert and David E. Daniel Ehrenhaft. Courageous Princess Volume 2. Rod Espinosa. Ophie Out of Oz. Lunch Money. Andrew Clements. The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones. Will Mabbitt. When Santa Fell to Earth. Cornelia Funke. The House of Serendipity. Akissi: Even More Tales of Mischief. Marguerite Abouet. 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. 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. 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. 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. Jul 30, Shivani rated it it was amazing. 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. 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. 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. 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 understanding as quite useless. During his journey into increasingly absurd adventures, however, he slowly but steadily sharpens his mind and wit, and starts thinking for himself, reflecting on different perspectives of reality. The biggest midget in the world happens to be the smallest giant in the world at the same time, and Milo would not have thought of either title for the man who appears absolutely average to him. In Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, he learns about the peculiarities of language and maths, and about the complexity of thought that is the basis for our means of communication. Just like Milo in the story, some students might have given up in the middle if they had not shared and cheered each other on. It is not a simple mainstream, straightforward plot. One of the completely impossible tasks in the book was described by the author in an afterword. He had had a conflict with his illustrator who refused to draw a required situation in the book. He claimed it to be impossible. The drawing was supposed to show the following: "Three demons, one tall and thin, the second short and fat, and the third exactly the same as the other two! But we solved it: "I'm possible", we wrote underneath. It is one of my favourite memories of reading with students, and I highly recommend the book to grown-ups and children alike: if you are not satisfied, after all, wasted time will be refunded! Nov 17, Calista rated it really liked it Shelves: classic , own , x-surreal , groundbreaking , genre-fantasy , genre-comedy , wordsmith , s , bage- middle-grade , 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 This was a joy to read again. It is a fun little middle grade read that I'm so glad is still around. I did listen to this in the car on my way to school and I can't remember many of the wonderful quotes from characters I would love to put down here and comment on. Rhyme and Reason are important in this book and without them we do see what a mess the world can be. I also enjoy how the Phantom Tollbooth just appears and disappears without ever explaining who are what sent it. It just is. I found that refreshing. This should be school reading or on a reading list at school. This also reminds me so much of Alice and Wonderland and the absurdity of the characters we meet in this strange land. Milo is simply trying to figure things out. It's the closest thing to it that I know of. It is a sharp witted little story and it's easy to see how it came out of the 60s era. I had fun reading it. Aug 05, Brian Yahn rated it it was amazing 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 The Phantom Tollbooth is--without doubt--the funnest book I've ever read. 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 ultimately returns home--this story never stops surprising, never stops intriguing, and definitely--not for a word--does it stop being fun. View all 4 comments. Nov 25, emma rated it it was amazing Shelves: funny , that-setting-tho , owned , recommend , classics , children-s , beautifully-written , 5-stars , reviewed , reread. 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 Is this the cleverest book of all time? There were so many puns and allusions and metaphors I didn't understand the first eleven times I read it, so they made rereading this like a whole new experience. I read it in a sitting! It was such a blast. God, I want to drop a visit to the Lands Beyond so badly. Don't you guys wish you could jump into books, just for a hot second? Or, at the very least, a mysterious tollbooth would be given to you to grant you passage into a mysterious kingdom filled with puns. I mean, come on. This is only going to be a mini review because I don't even know how much I can joke about this book. I have a major soft spot for it, okay?! We all have our things. Bottom line: Totally give this book a try. It's compelling, and clever, and short, and the characters are so cute, and the setting is so fascinating and creative and fun and amazing, and the whole thing will stick to ya like glue. I'll never be able to escape this book, and I'm not mad about it. View 2 comments. Sep 20, Katie rated it it was ok 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 I wasn't as impressed with this book as many of my friends. In style the book seems to be written for a particular age group ranging from , depending on the vocabulary and maturity of the reader. And, for the preteen sense of humor, the wordplay was appropriate and would be quite funny to the intended audience. However, the wordplay was really the only interesting aspect to the book, and I'm tempted to say as much for the joke books my niece reads to me. The plot was simple and was secondary to both the wordplay and the multiple morals of the story. In fact, a new moral was introduced with every chapter some chapters containing more than one moral , and each chapter was only a few short pages long. This was the main drawback to the book. Not to say that morals aren't important in a work, but too many morals are detracting. Introducing, then immediately leaving a moral behind decreases the likeliness that it will be remembered once the book is finished. My other main problem with the book was the lack of description to help the reader enjoy the fantastical and quite creative world Juster introduces. Here one moment, and there the next, the reader is left wondering How did Milo find his car again he was lost only a moment ago? Where are they? What do they see? This book, whose main moral is to teach a child to notice the world around them, simply forgot to take a look around. The spectacular scene with Chroma and his orchestra being the exception. Overall, an interesting book, leaps and bounds above the other children's literature of Juster's contemporaries, but not my favorite. View all 8 comments. May 08, David rated it really liked it 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. 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! 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. 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. I'm afraid it's all my fault. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons. View all 5 comments. Dec 21, 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. In Dictionopolis and Digitopolis Milo discovers the value of words and numbers; on the Mountain of Ignorance he learns that knowledge can fight off inattention and indulgence; in the Doldrums, he avoids ennui by thinking; and through it all, he discovers that a little attention reveals wondrous details in everything around him. But the real pleasure of it is the whip-smart wordplay. And, not all puns are created equal. Still, they're puns, and we have to love them. But these are tiny complaints. In the interview at the end of the audiobook read by David Hyde Pierce , Juster says that many of the demons in the story—like the terrible Trivium, who waylays us with inane tasks—reflect the challenges that he struggles with in his writing. Do I recommend it? Read it at different times over the course of your life. Would I teach it? It would be fun. Lasting impressions: I first read The Phantom Tollbooth in the third grade, and though I only remembered excerpts from it before revisiting it recently, looking back at it now, I wonder if it was the most formative experience of my childhood. Dec 01, Diane rated it really liked it 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. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in the pond; and whenever you're sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer. Nov 28, Mariel rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: mathletes. 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! It's good for you.

THE ANNOTATED PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH | Kirkus Reviews

Target the Problem! Pinpoint the problem a struggling reader is having and how to help. Reading Interventions Watch one-on-one reading support in action with K-3 students. FAQs Questions about reading, writing, dyslexia and more. Author Interviews Meet your favorite authors and illustrators in our video interviews. Book Finder Create your own booklists from our library of 5, books! Themed Booklists Dozens of carefully selected booklists, for kids years old. Nonfiction for Kids Tips on finding great books, reading nonfiction and more. Skip to main content. You are here Home. Leonard Marcus. Jules Feiffer. There, he acquires two faithful companions and goes on a quest to restore to the kingdom its exiled princesses—named Rhyme and Reason—from the Castle in the Air. In the process, he learns valuable lessons, finding a love of learning. The text is full of puns and wordplay, such as when Milo unintentionally jumps to Conclusions, an island in Wisdom, thus exploring the literal meanings of idioms. In , Juster had received a Ford Foundation grant for a children's book about cities. Unable to make progress on that project, he turned to writing what became The Phantom Tollbooth , his first book. His housemate, Feiffer, a cartoonist, interested himself in the project. Jason Epstein , an editor at Random House, bought the book and published it. The book received rave reviews and has sold in excess of three million copies, far more than expected. It has been adapted into a film , opera, and play, and translated into many languages. Though the book is on its face an adventure story , a major theme is the need for a love of education ; through this, Milo applies what he has learned in school, advances in his personal development, and learns to love the life that previously bored him. Milo is a boy bored by the world around him; every activity seems a waste of time. He arrives home from another boring day at school to find a mysterious package. Among its contents are a small tollbooth and a map of "the Lands Beyond," illustrating the Kingdom of Wisdom which will also guide the reader from its place on the endpapers of the book. Attached to the package is a note "For Milo, who has plenty of time. He maneuvers through the tollbooth in his electric toy car, and instantly finds himself driving on a road that is clearly not in his city apartment. Milo begins with Expectations, a pleasant place where he starts on Wisdom's road. In Expectations, he seeks directions from the Whether Man, who is full of endless talk. As Milo drives on, he daydreams and gets lost in the Doldrums , a colorless place where nothing ever happens. Milo soon joins the inhabitants, the Lethargians, in killing time there, a pastime angrily interrupted by the arrival of Tock, a talking, oversize dog with an alarm clock on each side a "watchdog" , who tells Milo that only by thinking can he get out of the Doldrums. Head abuzz with unaccustomed thoughts, Milo is soon back on his road, and the watchdog joins him on his journey through Wisdom. Milo and Tock travel to Dictionopolis, one of two capital cities of the divided Kingdom of Wisdom, and home to King Azaz the Unabridged. They meet King Azaz's cabinet officials and visit the Word Market, where the words and letters are sold that empower the world. A fight between the Spelling Bee and the blustering Humbug breaks up the market, and Milo and Tock are arrested by the very short Officer Shrift. In prison, Milo meets the Which not to be confused with Witch , also known as Faintly Macabre, long in charge of which words should be used in Wisdom. She tells him how the two rulers, King Azaz and his brother, the Mathemagician, had two adopted younger sisters, Rhyme and Reason, to whom everyone came to settle disputes. All lived in harmony until the rulers disagreed with the princesses' decision that letters championed by Azaz and numbers by the Mathemagician were equally important. They banished the princesses to the Castle in the Air, and since then, the land has had neither Rhyme nor Reason. Milo and Tock leave the dungeon. King Azaz hosts them at a banquet where the guests literally eat their words, served to them on plates. After the meal, King Azaz lets Milo and Tock talk themselves into a dangerous quest to rescue the princesses. Azaz flatters the Humbug into being their guide, and boy, dog and insect set off for the Mathemagician's capital of Digitopolis as they must gain his approval before they can begin their quest. Along the way, they meet such characters as Alec Bings, a little boy suspended in the air who sees through things and who will grow down until he reaches the ground. He then meets the world's smallest giant, the world's biggest dwarf, the world's thinnest fat man, and the world's fattest thin man, who turn out to just be one regular man. Milo then loses time in substituting for Chroma the Great, a conductor whose orchestra creates the colors of the world. They meet a creature called the Dodecahedron, who leads them to Digitopolis, where they meet the Mathemagician, who is still angry at Azaz, and who will not give his blessing to anything that his brother has approved. Milo maneuvers him into saying he will permit the quest if the boy can show the two have concurred on anything since they banished the princesses. To the number wizard's shock, Milo proves that the two have agreed to disagree, and the Mathemagician gives his reluctant consent. After overcoming obstacles and their own fears, they reach the Castle in the Air. Princesses Rhyme and Reason welcome Milo and agree to return to Wisdom. Unable to enter the castle, the demons cut it loose, letting it drift away, but Milo realizes Tock can carry them down because 'time flies'. The demons pursue, but the armies of Wisdom repel them. Rhyme and Reason heal the divisions in the old Kingdom of Wisdom, Azaz and the Mathemagician are reconciled, and all enjoy a three-day celebration. Milo says goodbye and drives back through the tollbooth. Suddenly he is back in his own room, and discovers he has been gone only an hour, though his journey seemed to take weeks. He awakens the next day with plans to return to the kingdom, but finds the tollbooth gone when he gets home from school. A note instead is there, "For Milo, who now knows the way. Milo is somewhat disappointed but agrees and looks at a now-interesting world around him, concluding that even if he found a way back, he might not have time to go, for there is so much to do right where he is. Architect Norton Juster was living in his hometown of Brooklyn , after three years in the Navy. He took a weekend break with friends at Fire Island , and came back determined to put aside the cities book and seek inspiration in another writing project. The Phantom Tollbooth after exiting the Doldrums [7]. Juster's guilt over his lack of progress on the cities book had led him to write pieces of stories about a little boy named Milo, [8] which he began to develop into a book. Juster quit his job so that he could work on the book. Feiffer was surprised to learn that his friend's insomnia was not caused by the cities book, but by a book about a boy. Juster showed Feiffer the draft to date and, unbidden, the artist began sketching illustrations. Feiffer knew Judy Sheftel, who put deals together in the publishing trade and was his future bride. Sheftel got Jason Epstein , an innovative editor at Random House with a deep appreciation for children's literature, to agree to review the manuscript. Since Juster did the cooking for the housemates, if Feiffer wanted to eat, he had to do the drawings. It became a game, with Feiffer trying to draw things the way he wanted, and Juster trying to describe things that were impossible to sketch. Repeated edits altered the protagonist's name originally Tony , removed his parents entirely from the book, and deleted text attempting to describe how the tollbooth package had been delivered. Milo's age was removed from the text—early drafts have him aged eight or nine—as Juster decided not to state it, lest potential readers decide they were too old to care. Since no one has ever bothered to explain the importance of learning to Milo, he regards school as the biggest waste of time in his life. Like the Bee, the Humbug's insult to his fellow insect goes over Milo's head, but possibly not the reader's: "A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. The Phantom Tollbooth in Dictionopolis [23]. Another theme is the need for common sense to back up rules. Milo journeys through a land where, without Rhyme or Reason, the art of governance has been lost, leading to bizarre results. Milo repeatedly meets characters to whom words are more important than their meaning. The Whether Man, for all his talk, is unable to provide Milo with the information or guidance the boy wants, while Officer Shrift's investigation of the overturning of the Word Market contains the forms of law, without justice. The denizens around Digitopolis are little better; the twelve-faced Dodecahedron , named for what he is, turns the logic of his naming on its head when he asks if everyone with one face is called Milo. The attitudes now displayed by the adherents of both brothers are summed up by the Dodecahedron, "as long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong? As Milo struggles with words and begins the process of making himself their master, he also has difficulty with numbers, especially when he speaks with. Milo has had difficulties in school with mathematics and problem solving; his reaction to this encounter is to protest that averages are not real. The partial child enlightens Milo that there is beauty in math beyond the tedium of learning an endless set of rules, "one of the nicest things about mathematics, or anything else you might care to learn, is that many of the things which can never be, often are". For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons". Although Milo is bored with learning, that does not mean he knew nothing before his journey. He exhibits characteristics of a well-schooled child of his time; his speech is polite and peppered with "please" and "thank you", and when he unexpectedly encounters the partial child, he requests pardon for staring. Mindful of his mother's admonition to eat lightly when a guest, he initially orders a light meal at the banquet, only to find the waiters bringing in insubstantial light beams. Not realizing he will be asked to eat his words, he then makes a plausible start at a speech before being interrupted by the king. Marcus in his notes to its annotated edition writes that the boy learns to think in the abstract, pledging after his unintentional jump to Conclusions that he will not make up his mind again without a good reason. Milo does not accept the word of the demon of insincerity that he is a threat and is rewarded by learning he is not. Even though the day is won by Milo and his fellow questers, it is a great but not a permanent victory, as he hears the kingly brothers begin to argue again as he departs. Juster has written that it was his intent to get Milo out of there as quickly as possible, and that "the fight would have to be won again and again". Milo's trip through the lands beyond the tollbooth teaches the previously bored child to appreciate both journey and destination. This is a lesson that had been unlearned by the citizens of Wisdom, as exemplified by the described fate of the twin cities of Reality and Illusions. Although the city of Illusions never actually existed, Reality was lost as its residents concentrated on getting to their destination as quickly as possible, and, unappreciated, the city withered away, unnoticed by the busy people who still hasten along its former streets. Milo meets his trials by defining himself as different from the kingdom's inhabitants, who either demand or accept conformity, as enforced by the kingdom's laws, which discourage and even outlaw thought. Milo cannot accept such laws, beginning when, in the Doldrums, he thinks, thus violating a local ordinance and separating himself from the thoughtless inhabitants. Liston opined that because the Kingdom of Wisdom's "laws require the impossible, they contradict what it means to be fully human". The Phantom Tollbooth contains allusions to many works, including those loved by Juster in his own upbringing. Some of Juster's favorite books as a child, including The Wind in the Willows , had endpaper maps; Juster insisted on one, over Feiffer's opposition, going so far as to sketch one and require that his collaborator reproduce it in his own style. In his childhood, Juster spent much time listening to the radio. Jim gave Tock his wisdom, courage, and adventurous spirit. He remembered that the condition affected word associations. On the Lone Ranger [radio serial] they would say, 'Here come the Injuns! The Phantom Tollbooth in Dictionopolis [33]. Some of the incidents in the book stem from Juster's own past. In Digitopolis, the Numbers Mine, where gemlike numerals are dug for, recalled one of Juster's architecture professors at the University of Pennsylvania , who compared numbers and equations to jewels. Growing up in a Jewish-American household where the parents demanded high achievement, Juster was intimately familiar with expectations, though in his case many of his parents' hopes were centered on his older brother, an academic star. Juster had not read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland when he wrote The Phantom Tollbooth , but the two books, each about a bored child plunged into a world of absurd logic, have repeatedly been compared. Carroll leaves us uncertain if Alice has learned anything from her adventures, but Juster makes it clear that Milo has acquired tools he will need to find his way through life. The Phantom Tollbooth was published in September Its competition among new books for the minds and hearts of children included Roald Dahl 's James and the Giant Peach. Neither publisher nor first-time author expected many sales for The Phantom Tollbooth , but Juster was nevertheless disappointed not to find his work on store shelves. His mother, Minnie, did her part, as her son put it, "terrorizing" bookstore owners into displaying it. The Phantom Tollbooth meeting the elevated Alec Bings [40].

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