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The Phantom Tollbooth Review
User Submitted The Phantom Tollbooth ReviewsOctober 24, 2008 A funny book I am eight years old and the book is great is for any child to read. I really enjoyed reading the book. I definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys humorous books. Sometimes I couldn't put the book down because it was so interesting and I really wanted to find out what was happening next. My older sister, who is 11 years old also loved the book. Both of us are girls. The book is about a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself and finds out there is much more exciting things about life. My favorite part was when he went to Dictionopolis and he met King Azaz. October 16, 2008 THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster The Phantom Tollbooth is a children's fantasy novel written by Norton Juster and Illustrated by Jules Feiffer. The story is about a bored child named Milo, who travels to the fantastical Kingdom of Wisdom, where he makes friends, goes on quests, and learns valuable life lessons. The moral of the story is overt: Milo goes in apathetic toward everything and gradually acquires a healthy appreciation for reading, math, thinking, and learning in general. There are obvious parallels between The Phantom Tollbooth and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and Tollbooth is, in a way, a Pilgrim's Progress for thought and learning. Juster's story is based on wordplay, and is heavily pun-driven. But Juster's writing is so clever that this nearly always works without becoming tiresome, and the book is so humorous and entertaining that even adults should not get bored. Feiffer's illustrations are sloppy-looking pen scratchings. They aren't great, but they get the job done. Ultimately, though, in the almost fifty years since The Phantom Tollbooth was published, Fieffer's art has been indelibly intertwined with what this book is. In other words, The Phantom Tollbooth is not a book that could ever be re-released with a different set of illustrations. The Phantom Tollbooth is a classic of children's literature, a book that has held up well over time, and one that can be enjoyed by adults as well. October 13, 2008 My favorite book of all time. Ok, I HATE nonsense novels so you'd think that I'd hate the phantom tollbooth ,right? Wrong! This book is not like other nonsense novels; it's special. With lovable characters such as: Tock the Watchdog, Humbug, Rhyme, Reason, King Azaz, The Mathamagician, and of course the star of this, Milo. I love every single story in this book and laughed aloud at them each-except the first one about numbers, which made my head hurt. August 4, 2008 An Overlooked Classic This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. I never heard of it growing up, and my parents were diligent in providing us with the classics. Even today most of the customers in my bookstore don't know it exists. This is a crime, because it belongs right up there with Alice in Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows. It's a fantasy about a bored little boy who gets into a magic car and goes through the phantom tollbooth into a land of adventure. He must rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason to restore order to the kingdom. It is chock full of extremely clever puns, because in this world things are really taken literally. You can eat your own words, visit the Island of Conclusions (which can only be reached by jumping to it) and so many more that I won't spoil it by telling you about them. I often found myself laughing out loud. Sure, it's considered a children's book and kids love it, but don't let that put you off if you're an adult. It's timeless, and everyone can enjoy it. A friend who's a librarian recommended it to me, and I'll be forever grateful! July 30, 2008 The point is to learn how to think "Can you help me?" "Help you! You must help yourself," the dog replied, carefully winding himself with his left hind leg. "I suppose you know why you got stuck." "I guess I just wasn't thinking," said Milo. "PRECISELY," shouted the dog as his alarm went off again. "Now you know what you must do." "I'm afraid I don't," admitted Milo, feeling quite stupid. "Well," continued the watchdog impatiently, "since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking." July 19, 2008 A fun book! (review by Harry, a 9 year old boy) A very very good book. In the book, everything is basically literal. For example, the dog, shown on the front cover, named Tock, is a literal "watch dog". A very funny part is where the main characters, Milo and Tock, are in Dictionopolis and they meet the King of Dictionopolis' cabinet. When the Earl (from the Cabinet) said something was "as easy as falling off a log" he actually fell off a log himself. I think that if he had said "easy as pie", a pie would have splatted in his face. Ptbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb!! I think it's also very funny when all three, Milo, Tock, and the Humbug, who Milo and Tock met in Dictionopolis, "jumped to Conclusions", literally. They landed on the island named Conclusions, which was about a mile offshore. They had to swim all the way back through the Sea of Knowledge. This book made me laugh a lot. I read it more than once and I recommend it for children from Third Grade to High School. June 18, 2008 Enjoying the PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH: now and forever. At first, I simply enjoyed it as a kid. Later on, as a teen, I looked for it when I was...bored. Now, I have this book on my shelf, waiting for me (and my nephew, when he's old enough). Except that I find its characters always popping up in the back of my mind. Those of you that didn't enjoy it: it's okay. Still, the whole point of the book is less about the "incorrect" math problems, lousy puns and nonsensical turns of phrase...and more about seeing life with new eyes. In any case, come back to it again later. As time grew on, Jules Feiffer's drawings seemed too sketchy; but when perusing these reviews, I realized that this was the point. For someone who enjoys seeing books as "brain movies" (like me), the last thing I want is a reading book with rich illustrations. (For that, I'll read a comic book.) Just simple, basic illustrations: boy, dog w/watch body, the Trivium. These are sketches. We, the readers, get to cast the kid actor; create the character design based LOOSELY on the story art.(Animation fan, too). I'll probably read it later tonight. June 17, 2008 Fantastic Book Reviewed by my 5th grade daughter: I had to read this book for a fifth grade project. Every day we read a little bit more, and every day when I came home, I told my Mom how much fun I was having reading it and what a great book it was. So, at the next book fair our school had, I bought the book for our whole family. The book was hilarious and was just way interesting. May 30, 2008 The Phantom Tollbooth The Phantom Tollbooth is a wonderfully ridiculous tale. Milo, a kid with nothing to do, discovers a strange cardboared tollbooth leading to a magnificient world. In this strange world, he encounters many queer allies. Milo can easily be related to because before he discovers the tollbooth, he is bored and has nothing to do. My favorite part of the book is the end, which I won't give away. All in all, I really liked this book. I recommend this book to advanced readers and people who don't easily get confused. Have fun reading The Phantom Tollbooth. May 25, 2008 WOW...W-O-W... Wow...just simply...W-O-W! I have never read or imagined a more moving book than `The Phantom Tollbooth' in all of my years, literally to tears of pure astonished and thought-provoked amazement and wonder! I picked this book up from where it sat, among a collection of books that I had already read, some I had not even touched, and others I hadn't seen in years in preparation for a garage sale for my church. Sorting through the books, I perhaps wantonly decided which one's I had grown out of between which ones I still liked, trying to decide whether I like them enough to possibly re-read or not when I happened upon the plain-looking blue covered Phantom Tollbooth. I had never read it before, and as it hovered before the box of books to be sold for anywhere between fifty cents to two dollars, I thought it would be shame to have not read it. After all, I recalled, during Quiz Bowl practices many of the literary questions often referred to this very book. I had heard that it was one of those classic books of all times that every one is supposed to have read during their lifetime... The kind that has that silver of gold medal stamp on them for an out-standing novel award, though the plain cover I held between my hands was merely that of a boy and a dog with a watch for a belly, did not. And so I turned to the first page, and was instantly and immediately sucked into Milo's adventure, unprepared for the moving of my heart so. Opening my eyes to so many things that I had missed, realizations of my own heart and mind, of life...Shocked does not even begin to describe it. With such a simple logic, humor, and words Norton Juster has taught me more than most of my High School teachers (although I think, now that I can look back, many have been telling me these same things in different ways). But as a fellow hopeful future writer of novels, the format of a book that shared a love of knowledge and words and imagination in such a new, timelessly profound way had me riveted to each turning page and ink pressed word... WOW...Wow...wow I found myself breathless and watery eyed by the time I had finished... Completely forgetting about all the other books I still had to sort between selling or keeping or re-reading...compelled to write about this "Novel Renaissance" as I realize how much more of life I have yet to be awakened to. THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, in the words of the Spelling Bee. LONG LIVEMILO, TOCK, HUMBUG, AND NORTON JUSTER! If you have not read it or have not read in a long time, you absolutely MUST read it. And not because you have to read it for some English teacher or because your parents say you should, not because it has all this literary acclaim or a shiny silver or gold circle plastered on the cover. Not even because it has a strange cover (I know, I really must stop judging books by their covers...they tend to become offended with me...) But because the more you look at that boy on the cover and the strange dog with a watch for a belly you simply have to wonder, I wonder what that's all about... And then immediately thinking those very words, please open to the first page of that very first chapter and begin with those gripping fish-hook words of "There was once a boy named Milo..." Wow...simply wow... For more The Phantom Tollbooth reviews click here.
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