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!

I hated this when I was younger because I’ve never been one for fantasy. Now that I am older, I understand better what he was trying to do. It’s like Alive and Wonderland meets The Pilgrim’s Progress. Buster surely was a genius, creating characters for different phrases and attitudes that we have. However, I still am not on board with the whole fantasy aspect. Hence the 3 stars.

I read this back in 5th grade and all I remembered about it was the kid who grew down from the air instead of up from the ground.

This was basically dad jokes turned into a story akin to Alice in Wonderland, with the moral being to enjoy where you and learn all that you can. Very enjoyable. The narrator was excellent for this and captured the whimsical tone perfectly.

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.

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.

If I could give this six stars I absolutely would! This has got to be one of the most clever children's books out there! I've read this three times now and still laugh on every page - yes, *every* page!

Juster's wit, use of popular sayings and concepts, and his play on words is phenomenally conceived and perfectly executed! Here's an excerpt:

"Now will you tell me where we are?" asked Tock as he looked around the desolate island.
"To be sure," said Canby; "you're on the Island of Conclusions. Make yourself at home. You're apt to be here for some time."
"But how did we get here?" asked Milo, who was still a bit puzzled by being there at all.
"You jumped, of course," explained Canby. "That's the way most everyone gets here. It's really quite simple: every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not. It's such an easy trip to make that I've been here hundreds of times."

This would be a great family read-aloud!

Ages: 5/6+

Cleanliness:
Children's Bad Words
Mild Obscenities & Substitutions - 1 Incident: stupid
Religious Profanities - 2 Incidents: my goodness
Scatological Terms - 1 Incident: bl**dy

Religious & Supernatural - 1 Incident: There are "demons" in this story. Really, they are bad character traits that have been personified, such as Threadbare Excuse and Gross Exaggeration.

Romance Related - 1 Incident: The words "breast pocket" are used.

Parent Takeaway
This is a story about a boy that is completely unmotivated about learning, activities, ... everything really. But one day, he receives a mysterious box and his life suddenly changes - and he realizes just how fun and full learning, and knowledge, and life can be. Full of satire, play on words, riddles and adventure, this is one of the best family read-alouds of all time.

**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!

So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!

"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!

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 is an all-time favorite of mine.
My fifth-grade teacher, Miss Shannon, read it to the class chapter by chapter, and I was so absorbed in the story I cajoled my grandma into buying me a copy so I wouldn't have to wait for the next day's reading time. I recently re-read it with my kids and they loved it, too. The humor (downright Monty Python-esque in places) and vocabulary was a bit over their heads, but they still got into it. Seriously, what's not to love about a talking dodecahedron?
Highly recommended for adults and kids over perhaps age 8, or younger if you are reading it to them.

An old favorite that hasn’t aged as well as I’d expected. The highlights were still pretty good, and my kid liked it and was excited to read it at night.

I read it out loud to my kid and found the story to be remarkably episodic and random. A lot of the language was clunky with a bad rhythm that made me tired. I also didn’t remember it being so much in the fairy tale genre, but it is, largely, using fairy tale logic of gifts and rules of 3 and things like that.

That said, it plays lots of fun word games (too tricky for my kid, but I liked them) and has some memorable classic monsters and magical happenings.

Kind of a cross between Lewis Carroll and Terry Pratchett, this amusing child's fantasy is based on puns and figures of speech taken literally. The story is simplistic enough to amuse children but most of the humor would go right over most children's heads. It's fun for adults, too, as I've learned by re-reading it now. It's a true classic as it's just as entertaining and apt now as when it was written nearly 50 years ago.

JULY

as part of my personal reading challenges for 2017, once a month i will be revisiting a favorite book from when i was a little bitty karen and seeing if it holds up to my fond memories and determining if i can still enjoy it as an old and crotchety karen.

fingers crossed.

so: first things first. in answer to the question 'does this book hold up?' here’s what’s weird. i have no memory of reading this book as a kid. i know i read it - i remember all of jules feiffer’s illustrations and i have strong memories of taking it off the library shelves and adding it to my stack on a number of occasions, and i also remember it being read to me in elementary school in my AT program (that’s ‘academically talented,’ thank you very much). however, reading it for this project, it was completely unfamiliar to me - i had no nostalgic shiver of recognition, nor any anticipation of what was to come. the only explanation i have for this blank is that while reading this book as a child, i also witnessed an unspeakable crime, after which i was kidnapped and had my memory wiped, accounting both for the lack of memory and the simultaneously strong memory of borrowing it from the library multiple times.

which is fine - i have no interest in remembering unspeakable crimes, and the memory wipe allowed me to experience this book as though for the first time.

baby-karen review:





adult-review:

adults-only this time, i guess. this book is beyond delightful - silly, yes but also genuinely funny and smart. full of puns and paradoxes and wordplay and wonderland-logic, but more sophisticated and less loopy than wonderland - it’s a clever kind of humor that appeals to both kids and adults and also happens to be full of truths:

…you can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do.

sure, there are lots of lessons, like the importance of choosing your words with precision, and the necessity of common sense and imagination in learning, as it contributes more lasting value than rote memorization, which is basically the point of this book - milo is a smart enough kid, but he is bored by school, because he has no framework for applying his learning:

”I can’t see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February.”

but once he passes through the magical phantom tollbooth, he begins to actually apply his brain and creativity towards problem-solving adventures both linguistic and numerical, meeting many crazy characters along the way, taking some on as traveling companions, like the wonderful watchdog. who is a dog and a watch at once.



like the watchdog, the lessons milo learns revolve around the ideas of what is possible - broadening his educational perspective, transcending the limited brainbox of formal education and embracing a less structured, more experiential approach to learning.

”one of the nicest things about mathematics, or anything else you might care to learn, is that many of the things which can never be, often are.”

this is one of those revelations that can change a person, and juster reinforces it in a number of ways:

”so many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.”

which is a reasoning that brings to mind that alice in wonderland quote:

Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

but it’s a different treatment - in alice, the tone is just a giggle; it’s silliness in a vacuum. juster’s take is more encouraging and ultimately more useful as a life lesson, fostering self-confidence:

”…you had the courage to try; and what you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.”

that is not to say that this is a through-and-through feel-good book. some of the realizations are very sobering slaps:

”But if all the roads arrive at the same place at the same time, then aren’t they all the right way?” asked Milo.

“Certainly not!” he shouted, glaring from his most upset face. “They’re all the wrong way. Just because you have a choice, it doesn’t mean that any of them has to be right.”

this is an amazing insight and i wish i DID remember this book from my childhood days, because lord knows it is a useful lesson and it’s one that many adults haven’t figured out.

of course, we’ve figured out some of the other lessons the hard way:

”You’ll find,” he remarked gently, “that the only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that’s hardly worth the effort.”

indeed.

the last thing i want to call out is this illustration of the terrible trivium, which looks like nothing less than an early version of slender man:



the terrible trivium is just as insidious as slender man - he doesn’t make kids stab their friends, but as the demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit, he definitely brings his share of struggle to us all with his outlook:

”If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you’ll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won’t have the time. For there’s always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing…

which is interesting to me, because i encountered a similar philosophy recently in Arbitrary Stupid Goal, and when i read it there, i applauded it:

A goal that isn’t too important makes you live in the moment, and still gives you a driving force. This driving force is a way to get around the fact that we will all die and there is no real point to life.

But with the ASG there is a point. It is not such an important point that you postpone joy to achieve it. It is just a decoy point that keeps you bobbing along, allowing you to find ecstasy in the small things, the unexpected, and the everyday.

What happens when you reach the stupid goal? Then what? You just find a new ASG.

i recognized and appreciated this way of thinking, completely forgotting about juster’s version of it until i sat down to write this review and noticed the parallel. which makes my theory about some sort of book-related memory wipe implanted by hypnotic suggestion in my formative years more or less fact.

so, if you haven’t read this one yet, or if you have had your own memory of having read it wiped, get on it. and if you have bred children, make them read it. and do not let them anywhere near unspeakable crimes. which should go without saying, but still.

JANUARY: wait till helen comes

FEBRUARY: the little gymnast

MARCH: zucchini

APRIL: something queer at the library

MAY: good-bye pink pig

JUNE: the girl with the silver eyes

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shark week was so much later this year than usual that it threw me off, so i'm reading this one just under the gun, and trying to finish two more shark books before the week of festivities ends. YEESH!

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