It's been a long time since I first read this book, but it's still as good as ever, with its witty and delightful wordplay and paradoxes, and the transformation of Milo from a boy who is bored with everything to one who is curious, observant, thoughtful, and eager to learn. It's a fun, imaginative fantasy for all ages.

Now this is my kind of children’s book! I just know my child self would have adored this unique story that is so reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland(which was my absolute favorite). It’s wonderfully abstract, plays with language and has the best coded message you could give a child. A true classic indeed.

Well I've had this book up on my goodreads shelves for a long time but had no particular idea what to write about it save: Clever playful little book about a boy who drives through the phantom tollbooth of the title and winds up on a quest to rescue the Princesses Rhyme and Reason. Witty. Until this morning. First I read Lisa's review, then I went for a walk. Then a thought blown out of the bending branches of a tree fly via my ear directly into my mind, that it was curious that a freewheeling adventure starts with a tollbooth, with its associations of paying for access. Indeed our hero does have to make a token payment, but then I recalled The Talking Parcel, in which the youthful heroes travel to their adventure by train, and I believe it is the case that in the Harry Potter adventures the children also travel by train  as though Kings Cross isn't crowded enougheven at the end of Narnia it is by means of a train accident that the final characters transfer via death in life to life everlasting. It would seem crude and low even by my own  complete lack of standards to make a cultural point here about the differences between the USA and Britain in terms if individualist car driving versus collectivist sharing of train journeys  with the communion of train picnics revealed through children's writing, but today that's all I've got.

Apparently a classic in the US; I wanted to read it because I vaguely remembered snippets of it - I think I must have read it at a library or the like.

In the end, I could see why it might be loved by some children - those fascinated by language, in particular. And why, with its combination of whimsy and morality, it might be a subject of nostalgia among adults, even among those who may not have loved it as much as they remember in childhood.

Because I can also see why I didn't love it - why I vaguely remembered it, fondly, but never had my own copy, never even remembered the name or the author until my memory was jogged. An 'Alice' for the modern world, it's less strange and more superficial than Carroll's work: essentially it's a moral-political treatise (the modern non-spiritual world is filled with nonsense and chaos because we have lost our sense of Rhyme and Reason, which must be restored to bring about a spiritual reawakening of modern America, as we each improve ourselves, transforming ourselves into a heroic ideal of Manhood in much the same way that children themselves must grow up; also, it's all the fault of science and immigrants), liberally sweetened with continual puns. Some of them are quite clever puns, and the Moral Message is less aggressive and more heartwarmingly, platitudinously encouraging (and safely vague and non-specific) when taken over the course of a novel than when reduced in summary. But...

I'm not really sure who the book is for. Young children who are not obsessed with language will probably find the continual wordplay going over their head, and the Message a tad too subtle to spot. Adults who appreciate the Message and understand the jokes (if that's what we're to call them) are likely to be left unsatisfied by the superficiality, and lack of plot or pacing, and the lack even by the standards of children's novels of any sort of characterisation.

Apparently the book was written to appeal to nostalgia, and that might be its niche: those who want to immerse themselves in a nostalgic romance of Lost Childhood - particular those for whom that childhood once included this book. Perhaps it's a book that children are encouraged to read so that they can feel nostalgic about it later...


Slightly more extensive review over on my blog.

"In this box are all the words I know," he said. "Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the right places."

"And remember also," added the Princess of Sweet Rhyme, "that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you'll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow."


When I started to re-read The Phantom Tollbooth a few weeks ago, I was very excited, but I was also a little bit nervous. I have a special, uncritical reverence for this book, the sort that you can only really have for books you read when you were very young. I remember every picture in this book, and I remember it being filled with words and numbers and quite a lot of joy. It was lovely. I was afraid that a re-read as an adult would leave me feeling as if it wasn't as good as I remembered (or, maybe worse, that I've just grown up into a grumpy cynic).

But instead I was greeted with the pleasant surprise that The Phantom Tollbooth is still wonderful, and - without me realizing it, really - I think it had a huge determining course on who I wound up being as a person. I can't tell you how many times I came across sections that I probably didn't even entirely understand the first time through, but which are now really central and important to me. The second quote up there is pretty much a longer version of one of my absolute favorite quotes as an adult.

The Phantom Tollbooth is funny and sad and hopeful. There are loads of puns that should be kind of dumb, but instead are endearing and fun. It's full of reverence for words and their potential power, and its just imbued all the way through with a wonder for absolutely everything in the world. Go read it! It's the best.

Towering classic of world literature. So wonderful. If you haven't read it since you were a child, re-read it.

they’re giving out bagfuls of pronouns to children in this. would recommend. i’ll take some to go.

Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth made me happy. I loved the puns and playfulness. Even a dumb kid like me could appreciate the cool jokes. It's the language of words and numbers in a place that you can actually reach. Not "Learning is fun!" propaganda but "Hurry up, slow poke!" adventure stories in the vein of all the best ones. It's good for you.

I loved that Milo wanted to be away when he was home and away when he was home. No phantom tollbooth ever appeared to take me away (at least that wasn't in this book). I'd probably have gone on the adventure and then pined the rest of my days for another one... I was really good at missing the point of these kinds of stories. Have fun at home? Make friends at home? But I missed *those* friends!

In my lower self-esteem moments I'll still identify with The Terrible Trivium. I'm probably weird...

p.s. They made us watch the cartoon in elementary school. I started my infamous "1970s cartoon walk" in part because of this. Too bad it wasn't actually from the '70s. I suck.

P.s.s. And I never tagged this under "dogs" ("myonlyfriend", duh!). I really do suck. I'm sorry, Tock!

Someone in a review said “The Phantom Tollbooth” was their first favorite book. Oh, how I wish I could make that claim [mine was “The Story of Babar”].

I didn’t start “really” reading until I was late into my teens; and so, with a few exceptions like E. B. White and Beverly Cleary, I didn’t read children’s literature – nothing in the independent readers or young adult genres. A few months ago I resolved to remedy that sad fact by reading those books I skipped while growing up.

What a treasure I’ve discovered. Thus far I’ve read eight or nine books by Roald Dahl (now one of my very favorite authors), plus “Peter Pan,” “The Children of Green Knowe,” “Mary Poppins,” “The Borrowers,” “A Bear Called Paddington,” “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the lovely and bucolic “Wind in the Willows” and “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” (a true masterpiece on many levels).

Of all I’ve read Norton Juster’s “The Phantom Tollbooth” has had the most profound effect. Over the decades it has been favorably compared to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” However, the work it most closely resembles is L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Like Dorothy, Milo in “Tollbooth” is a child removed from the boredom of everyday life and transported to a magical land full of wonders, mysteries and dangers. On his trek to find his way home he meets a score of memorable characters – most notably the clock dog Tock. Milo and Dorothy are cousins of a sort; they both discover that there’s no place like home and that home is a place filled with wonders and magic if only you open yourself up to experience them.

Claims have been made that Juster’s wordplay and puns are too advanced for younger readers. So what? George Bernard Shaw once said: “Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself,” which is a tenant I hold with. This book’s sophistication simply enhances its multigenerational appeal (not unlike all those Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies with classical and pop culture references only adults understood). “Tollbooth” was pure pleasure to read and had me grinning like the Cheshire Cat from beginning to end.


Here is something special from The New Yorker about the books 50th anniversary http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20... enjoy.

I can see why this has been so popular for so many years.
Highly entertaining! I'm a little disappointed my first experience with this was as an adult.
I think with the whimsy of childhood this would have been even more magical.

n  n
Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest


I'm doing a project where I'm rereading some of my favorite books from adolescence and seeing how they hold up. Some of them are adult books and some of them are children's books. My most recent addition to the project is the delightful middle grade fantasy novel, THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. Including this book on the list might actually be cheating because I read it for the first time elementary school (and also watched the movie, which is supremely creepy in the way that only 1970s movies can be creepy, by which I mean it is basically like a bad acid trip).



THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH is about a boy named Milo who is depressed and jaded and doesn't really take joy in anything. One day, a present shows up in his apartment. It's a cardboard tollbooth. Having nothing better to do, he decides to try it and ends up transported to a very strange world where numbers come out of mines and words can be eaten and demons live in the land of Ignorance.



This is definitely a book for children but it's wonderfully clever and I think one of the things I love most about it is how many layers it has. Like ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Juster loves to play with words and meaning, and it's just so witty. Every time I read it, I pick up more references, and I think that's the mark of a perfect work of children's literature-- something that becomes additive over the years and gains, rather than loses, its value.



3.5 stars

My mother got this for us when I was 8 and it was first published in 1961. I still own that original edtion and it is not in great shape due to multiple readings. This is as much an adult as a children's book. Although I loved the story right away, it was more meaningful as I got older and I understood all the plays on words and deeper messages. Still worth rereading every decade or so as an adult, and it remains one of my favorite books. It's a very witty book. I'm a sucker for maps, however basic, and there is a map (of the pretend world written about) in the inside covers of the book. A very good fantasy with a very real heart.