The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

The Phantom Tollbooth is a children’s novel by Norton Juster with illustrations by Jules Feiffer. It was published in 1961. The story is about a boy called Milo. Now we all, from time to time feel bored with what we are doing but Milo was like this “not just sometimes but always”. Wherever he was he wanted to be somewhere else. If he got to somewhere else he wondered why he bothered. He could never see the point in “solving useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is, or how to spell February”. Knowledge was a great waste of time.

One day he comes home to find an enormous package in his room. Attached was the simple message, “For Milo, who has plenty of time”. Inside is one genuine turnpike tollbooth, three precautionary signs, assorted coins for use in paying tolls, one map and one book of rules. He constructed the tollbooth and consulted the map. Not knowing any of the places he randomly selects Dictionopolis. He gets in his electric car, pays the toll and drives on.

The Map drawn by Jules Feiffer, image from http://mikepop.typepad.com/blog/2007/09/the-lands-beyond.html image or scan of end paper from The Phantom Tollbooth, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29406843

Suddenly he found himself speeding along an unfamiliar country road, his room and the tollbooth now out of sight. I’ll leave it to you to find out the rest for yourself. It is the adventure of a unique imagination, not to be missed. Unlike Milo, if you read this you will never be bored. It is full of adventure and clever wordplay.