The Phantom Tollbooth

As much a book about language as anything else, its central message may be the need for a love of education, but don’t let that put you off. It’s full of wordplay, puns, and wonderful whimsy.

Take, for instance the ‘watchdog’ called ‘Tock’ who’s large, can speak, and has alarm clocks on each side of his body. You might call it ‘picaresque,’ you might call it ‘bonkers,’ but never ‘predictable’!

I don’t remember that it contains a sword.

This children’s classic has been on my bookshelf for as long as I can remember. Back then, I had no idea what a tollbooth was but I was sucked into Milo’s adventure nonetheless.

This book resonates so deeply with me, that one year I gave it as a Christmas present to everyone on my list. I still return to this book every once in a while to get a refresher on what a true friend is [Tock], how to get out of the Doldrums or conquer the Terrible Trivium.

Rhyme and Reason rule on land, but Douglas Adam’s “Don’t Panic”… show more.

I was ten when my parents gave me The Phantom Tollbooth. I loved it instantly, and read it again and again and again. 

It has a magical balance of wit and adventure. The world through which it takes its young hero on his quest for Rhyme and Reason is filled with strange places and stranger inhabitants, all of whom are delightful—even the preposterous Humbug, one of literature’s greatest comic nincompoops.

Honorable mention also to another favorite of my childhood, equally loved: Norman Lindsay’s brilliant The Magic Pudding. If you ever get the chance to read either of these classics to… show more.

Milo is bored. He receives a mysterious box with the address "For Milo, who has plenty of time" that contains a tollbooth. Milo drives through it to the Lands Beyond and stops at strange places. Dictionoplis and Digitopolis are the lands of words and numbers. Doldrums is where you end up if you don’t think, or act, or laugh. 

After Expectations, and Conclusions (where you get by jumping), and rescuing the two princesses, Rhyme and Reason, Milo is no longer the boy he was…

The Phantom Tollbooth shaped my love for words. The puns and riddles, and the rather silly… show more.

Young Milo, who doesn’t know what to do with himself, is teleported into a crazy world indeed: The Lands Beyond, where the Forrest of Sight contains an invisible city, where the Valley of Sound is silent, and where you have to take care to avoid getting lost in the Doldrums or jumping to (the island of) Conclusions. Milo’s quest is to find the princesses Rhyme and Reason and restore them to the realm. His sidekick is a watchdog named Tock (who ticks); the most loathsome demon in his way is a bureaucrat called the Senses Taker. 

I discovered this book at age ten in a doctor’s office, waiting for my mother. It’s pure fun for younger kids, while older ones will start to catch onto its endless puns, jokes, and philosophical conundrums (in that way, it’s like Alice in Wonderland). Milo, a very ordinary boy, is whisked off into an adventure in Digitopolis and Dictionopolis, the warring kingdoms of numbers and words. There he discovers things like Subtraction Soup (the more you eat, the hungrier you get) and the land of Conclusions (which you get to by jumping). The Phantom Tollbooth will keep a curious… show more.

This was one of the first chapter books I read in fourth grade, and I still love it to this day. It is not only funny and a well-developed world but it also is one of the best classics of its time. I love the concept of the whole book about entering a whole new world through a tollbooth that appears mysteriously in Milo’s room and he drives through it because he has nothing better to do. Yes, we all get bored or have hard times we face but it is books that help us escape just for a few… show more.

The Phantom Tollbooth is a book that masterfully opens the reader’s mind to different perspectives through his brilliant storytelling. Milo is a character who you learn to love as he winds his way through a divided world desperate to find Rhyme and Reason.

Norton Juster was a master at scene setting- taking an idea or concept and showing it in a unique way that resonates meaning. I gained insight into my feelings about certain situations. I was immensely entertained by the story, and certain scenes in the book will stick with me forever. The illustrations by Jules Feiffer are fantastic.… show more.

Middle-grade fantasy is not in my usual reading rotation, but this book is so funny and clever! Milo is bored, and thinks learning is a waste of time until he drives through the Phantom Tollbooth and meets Tock and The Humbug. Tock is wiser, stronger, and saves their lives multiple times, whereas The Humbug is at first pompous and pesty, but teaches Milo about love, loyalty, and questioning first impressions. This book is about believing that life will be full of unexpected surprises, that there is always something to learn, and that childhood is wonderful because children are!  

There is a lot going on in The Phantom Tollbooth, making the annotated edition well worth reading, but at its core it’s simply another fun book that follows a kid (and his canine companion, an actual watch-dog) on fantastic adventures. There’s literally plenty of literal literary turns of phrase, and the playful language adds layers and levels to the humor. Kids (and even adults) may not understand it all, or all the same, but the humor carries the reader on nonetheless.