When I first read this in primary school, I don't suppose I noticed just how wonderful the vocabulary was, but it is, & I wish today's books weren't so diminished. That's the thing with older children's books, they stretched both mind & vocabulary, assuming you had someone to explain, or at least pass you the dictionary.

I absolutely love Faintly Macabre, the not-so-wicked Which. The adventure through this world of words & imagination is a delight, a mind expansion for any age. I think this would be great fun for an adult to read to their kids or grandkids.

This was the latest book being taught and discussed in my daughter’s class, but with a state exam coming up, they took a little break. But we didn’t: we decided to run through it as fast as we could. It was also a book on my wife’s shelf that she’d encouraged me to read for the longest time.

Not only is it a kid’s book, not only is it fantasy, but it’s also got some odd turns of phrase, puns, and playing on words galore. Milo’s bored, and suddenly he finds a car and a tollbooth in his room. He hops in the car, drops a coin in the booth, and before long he’s on the road to Digitopolis. From there he’s in the doldrums, jumps to conclusions, and has a bunch more adventures in wordplay. Soon he finds himself on an adventure with a watchdog named Tock and The Humbug to rescue Rhyme and Reason and save the kingdom.



Loved these characters. Quirky and weird is the name of the game. And each one has a quirk that makes some sense, to whom Milo plays the straight man every time. Kind of reminds me of Costello in a lengthy version of “Who’s On First?” The plot takes off about 2/3 of the way through, when the adventure to rescue the princesses really begins. They’re chased all over by demons and tripped up all over.

But it’s the ending, and the relationships, and the sweet connections that really got me. Oh, boy. Rhyme and Reason have a few paragraphs that tell me why education is worth it, why learning new things and exploring ideas is one of the keys to a good life. I took screenshots and might just put a few quotes up in my office. Same for what Milo learns at the end. Great life lessons told in an endearing way. That knocked it into the 4.5-star category for me. The kind of book I wanted my daughter to read.

And so, she did. She was looking for something to do, so she sat on the couch and crushed it. Several weeks before her class. Makes a dad so proud.

Find the kid in your life and read this with them!

05/2012

This is a 5 star book, all the way. But honestly, as a person in my 30s, it bored me just a little bit, so I gave it 4. It was so much more intellectually challenging when I was nine. I now see this was the big influence for Lemony Snickets.

Filled with puns, but not much structure and I didn't care much for it.

If you want a meandering story in a fantasy world, that also contains puns and if that's enough for you, go for it!

To each one's own.

If I had to choose between reading this entire book or eating it...I'd ask whether I can prepare the pages in a way of my choosing. I think you could fold a book into some pulled pork and probably be okay. Maybe chili? And even if it was just straight up eating, I think I'd get through it faster with my mouth than my eyes.

This is painful to read. Like REALLY painful. Everything in it is so clever that it's a little gross. It's so cute. Like wouldn't it be funny if a watchdog was a dog with a watch embedded in it? And not in a Cronenburg way, in like a cute way? And then EVERYTHING in the book works that way. It's like Milo traveled to the land of Dad Jokes and instead of being a struggle for survival, it's just a wacky experience. In a real road trip through the land of Dad Jokes, you'd spend all your time trying to get that little go-kart up to speed so you could throw yourself out and die, bludgeoned by literal "bumps in the road," or maybe you could find a "fork in the road" and stab your eyes out.

This might be an adult critiquing a book for which he's not the audience, but I dunno. I think this book is one of those books that adults like way more than kids. Like Fantasia or something.

Anyway, skip this one unless you have special goggles for safety. I need to see my eye doctor because my eyes were rolling so hard.

I read this years ago when my son was in grammar school I remember enjoying it together.

I don't remember much about this book, except that I loved it to pieces, and that the subtraction stew always made me really hungry.

On of my favorite books ever.

Wise and philosophical as most children's/middle school books are. It talks about the meaning of life, words, rhyme, and reason. It also talks of the importance of time. The plot isn't all that adventurous though but the illustrations added appeal to the story while the word play is fun.

"RESULTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED, BUT IF NOT PERFECTLY SATISFIED, YOUR WASTED TIME WILL BE REFUNDED."

That is the promise the boy Milo receives when he embarks on a hilarious adventure to rescue two princesses named Rhyme and Reason in a fantasy land beyond the Phantom Tollbooth, which he explores with a colourful bunch of characters. At the beginning of the story, Milo is a bored young man who does not care much for anything, and can't see any point in learning, discarding knowledge and understanding as quite useless.

During his journey into increasingly absurd adventures, however, he slowly but steadily sharpens his mind and wit, and starts thinking for himself, reflecting on different perspectives of reality. The biggest midget in the world happens to be the smallest giant in the world at the same time, and Milo would not have thought of either title for the man who appears absolutely average to him. In Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, he learns about the peculiarities of language and maths, and about the complexity of thought that is the basis for our means of communication.



In the end, when Milo has developed into a curious, mature boy who cherishes the adventure of learning, he receives a final lesson from all the crazy characters in the story:

“As the cheering continued, Rhyme leaned forward and touched Milo gently on the shoulder.
"They're cheering for you," she said with a smile.
"But I could never have done it," he objected, "without everyone else's help."
"That may be true," said Reason gravely, "but you had the courage to try; and what you can do is often simply a matter of what you *will* do."
"That's why," said Azaz, "there was one very important thing about your quest that we couldn't discuss until you returned.
"I remember," said Milo eagerly. "Tell me now."
"It was impossible," said the king, looking at the Mathemagician.
"Completely impossible," said the Mathemagician, looking at the king.
"Do you mean----" said the bug, who suddenly felt a bit faint.
"Yes, indeed," they repeated together; "but if we'd told you then, you might not have gone---and, as you've discovered, so many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible."
And for the remainder of the ride Milo didn't utter a sound.”

I read this book aloud to a Grade 7 a couple of years ago, and later, when they were in Grade 9, they told me it was still their favourite book, and one they would never have read through or understood without the joint effort of the class, as it is a story requiring a high level of language skills as well as general understanding of how to motivate learning and generate curiosity. Just like Milo in the story, some students might have given up in the middle if they had not shared and cheered each other on. It is not a simple mainstream, straightforward plot.

One of the completely impossible tasks in the book was described by the author in an afterword. He had had a conflict with his illustrator who refused to draw a required situation in the book. He claimed it to be impossible. The drawing was supposed to show the following: "Three demons, one tall and thin, the second short and fat, and the third exactly the same as the other two!"

My students and I gave ourselves the task to create the drawing, and there were as many different results as there were participants in the activity. But we solved it: "I'm possible", we wrote underneath.

It is one of my favourite memories of reading with students, and I highly recommend the book to grown-ups and children alike: if you are not satisfied, after all, wasted time will be refunded!

I somehow missed reading The Phantom Tollbooth as a kid (or if I did read it, I've completely forgotten it!), which is a bit of a shame, because I think I would have enjoyed it!

Filled with wordplay and silliness, this is a great option for new middle grade readers (and, you know, those who are fans of "dad" jokes).

n  n    You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry.n  n

After a long time, this is the first children book I've read. It's a good book. I read this book because of its amazing cover. And the fact that it's my cousin's course book. She lent it to me and I read it in three sittings. And loved it!

It's the story of a bored child, Milo who doesn't find anything interesting in the real world. One day he gets Phantom Tollbooth as present which allows him to go to the Land Beyond. The Land Beyond has two main and important kingdoms, Dictionpolis and Digitopolis. Dictionpolis is ruled by the king of words, Azaz. And Digitopolis is ruled by a Mathemagician. Both kingdoms are at conflict because their kings are biased of their own way of communication. The matters in kingdoms have become worse because of the absence of two princesses, Rhyme and Reason. Milo goes on the quest to save them along with his two companions, a dog and a bug.

n  n    Words and numbers are of equal value, for, in the cloak of knowledge, one is warp and the other weft.n  n

=> To be honest, I was expecting it to be very funny. But it had one or two of such moments.
=> I loved Dictionpolis more than Digitopolis. In Dictionpolis, one *literally* eats his own words. LOL!
And in Digitopolis, there is Subtraction Stew. By eating this, you will feel more hungry than before!