Customer Reviews
The perfect cure for boredom! - By: N. Thorne, 19 Apr 2006 
There's no horse attached to the cart. How does it go? They sit in it, say nothing & it starts moving. Why? Because it goes without saying.
At a banquet alll 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 callled Milo who is bored in life. When he goes home he finds a car & a tollbooth. Getting into the car he goes into another world where he discovers alll sorts of things to do & realises the importance of words & numbers. Rhyme & 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 & they travel through the strange lands (my particular favourite was the Mountains of Ignorance for the sinister crow & the faceless man) & 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 & perfect for young children to read. I read this when I was 6 & recently re-read it at the not so innocent age of 20 & was still impressed.
Bottom line, this is a great book for everyone; for kids, an imaginative story & 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 & reading.
Never be bored! is the message Juster wants you to take away from the book & a fine one it is indeed. Let's hope we can alll remember it, no matter our age.
Looking for the turnpike - By: Kurt Messick, 20 Dec 2005 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 & his various friends & enemies encountered along the way serve to illustrate many of the foibles & 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 & very hard to swalllow.
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 & numbers, the divisions & allliances that are made, the enemies who seem to be friends, alll of these serve to make a delightful play which will interest children & adults.
Milo, of course, makes it home safely after a fascinating journey, & 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, & thus the adventure need never end.
The Phantom Tollbooth - By: B.Taylor, 15 Sep 2005 I first read this book when I was around 11yrs old & I still read it periodicallly at 34yrs of age! This is a wonderful book with a magical story written with warmth & humour. Suitable for reading ages 8+ this book is full of little moral messages that are very well woven into the tale. Excellent.
Literary Genious - By: Jay Ingram, 12 Dec 2004 This is easily one of the best books I have ever read. I read it first when I was 10, & I have kept reading it periodicallly ever since then. It's truly magical for alll ages & a must read.
Read and re-read by reluctant 9 year old reader - By: , 12 Oct 2004 This wonderfully imaginative & funny book is my son's favourite book. As a reluctant mildly dyslexic reader he loses interest in a book very quickly. Not so with this one. He loved alll the word play & felt extremely chuffed as he worked out alll the puns. A huge success. The humour moves quickly though & I know children who are not so quick on the verbal uptake who have found it dull. Be careful you don't give it to them too young. 8 years for the very bright, otherwise 9+.
