The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Phantom Tollbooth
Book Review: Fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars
A must read for all. Young and old alike. Rarely has a book been so nonsensical, yet entirely logical. Rarely has a book been so side splittingly funny, yet deathly serious. On the surface, this is a book of a young boys venture into a world of absolute nonsense, yet the more able younger readers and the adult readers will see the philosophical side to it, the comments on human nature, and understand the over-riding message that knowledge IS power.Forget harry Potter. Forget the Hobbit. Forget Jacqueline Wilson. This simply HAS to be the best childrens book ever written.
Book Review: The Phantom Tollbooth
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read this book when I was around 11yrs old and I still read it periodically at 34yrs of age! This is a wonderful book with a magical story written with warmth and humour. Suitable for reading ages 8+ this book is full of little moral messages that are very well woven into the tale. Excellent.Book Review: Looking for the turnpike
Summary: 5 Stars
Norton Juster's book is ostensibly a children's book. However, like much of children's literature, it contains hidden (and not so hidden) aspects that are of delight to adults as well. This, when you think of it, makes sense--the point of children's literature is to educate as well as entertain (one hopes!), therefore, it makes sense that some of the lessons will be more 'adult' than the actual storyline would seem to indicate.Milo and his various friends and enemies encountered along the way serve to illustrate many of the foibles and quirks of adult life. The Phantom Tollbooth serves as a gateway to a place that embodies the physical manifestations of metaphors.
For instance, in Dictionopolis (a city of words) Milo is invited to a banquet at which one must eat one's words. Just as in our world, sometimes those words can be sour and very hard to swallow.
Also, while you can jump to the Isle of Conclusions, you must reach the mainland again only by swimming through the sea of knowledge. And the water is cold. It is not easy to recover from having jumped to conclusions.
The interplay between concepts, the tension between words and numbers, the divisions and alliances that are made, the enemies who seem to be friends, all of these serve to make a delightful play which will interest children and adults.
Milo, of course, makes it home safely after a fascinating journey, and while he would like to take another trip, the phantom tollbooth is needed elsewhere for other children, too. However, Milo realises that he has his own tollbooth in his imagination, and thus the adventure need never end.
Book Review: Looking for the Turnpike
Summary: 5 Stars
Norton Juster's book is ostensibly a children's book. However, like much of children's literature, it contains hidden (and not so hidden) aspects that are of delight to adults as well. This, when you think of it, makes sense--the point of children's literature is to educate as well as entertain (one hopes!), therefore, it makes sense that some of the lessons will be more 'adult' than the actual storyline would seem to indicate.Milo and his various friends and enemies encountered along the way serve to illustrate many of the foibles and quirks of adult life. The Phantom Tollbooth serves as a gateway to a place that embodies the physical manifestations of metaphors.
For instance, in Dictionopolis (a city of words) Milo is invited to a banquet at which one must eat one's words. Just as in our world, sometimes those words can be sour and very hard to swallow.
Also, while you can jump to the Isle of Conclusions, you must reach the mainland again only by swimming through the sea of knowledge. And the water is cold. It is not easy to recover from having jumped to conclusions.
The interplay between concepts, the tension between words and numbers, the divisions and alliances that are made, the enemies who seem to be friends, all of these serve to make a delightful play which will interest children and adults.
Milo, of course, makes it home safely after a fascinating journey, and while he would like to take another trip, the phantom tollbooth is needed elsewhere for other children, too. However, Milo realises that he has his own tollbooth in his imagination, and thus the adventure need never end.
Book Review: The perfect cure for boredom!
Summary: 5 Stars
There's no horse attached to the cart. How does it go? They sit in it, say nothing and it starts moving. Why? Because it goes without saying.
At a banquet all of the guests say delicious things because at this banquet you eat your words.
Maybe you laughed at those jokes, maybe you groaned (you cynic!), but it gives you a flavour of the things in this book. The novel is about a lonely boy called Milo who is bored in life. When he goes home he finds a car and a tollbooth. Getting into the car he goes into another world where he discovers all sorts of things to do and realises the importance of words and numbers. Rhyme and Reason are the names of the two princesses who have been banished from the land (truly, a parable of our times)and it is up to Milo to return them. The story then becomes a quest story (like Dracula or Lord of the Rings) where Milo recruits companions and they travel through the strange lands (my particular favourite was the Mountains of Ignorance for the sinister crow and the faceless man) and it's also a sort of modern day Alice in Wonderland. All to the good!
The pictures that accompany it (by Jules Feiffer, Juster's flatmate in New York who drew as Juster wrote) are perfect in the way that John Tenniel's complemented Carroll's, while the prose is very readable and perfect for young children to read. I read this when I was 6 and recently re-read it at the not so innocent age of 20 and was still impressed.
Bottom line, this is a great book for everyone; for kids, an imaginative story and hopefully an inspiring one; for grown ups, a story that reminds you of the lessons learnt in your youth but also reinvigorates you to continue learning and reading.
Never be bored! is the message Juster wants you to take away from the book and a fine one it is indeed. Let's hope we can all remember it, no matter our age.