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"It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time," Milo laments. "[T]here's nothing for me to do, nowhere I'd care to go, and hardly anything worth seeing." This bored, bored young protagonist who can't see the point
...(more) to anything is knocked out of his glum humdrum by the sudden and curious appearance of a tollbooth in his bedroom. Since Milo has absolutely nothing better to do, he dusts off his toy car, pays the toll, and drives through. What ensues is a journey of mythic proportions, during which Milo encounters countless odd characters who are anything but dull. Norton Juster received (and continues to receive) enormous praise for this original, witty, and oftentimes hilarious novel, first published in 1961. In an introductory "Appreciation" written by Maurice Sendak for the 35th anniversary edition, he states, "The Phantom Tollbooth leaps, soars, and abounds in right notes all over the place, as any proper masterpiece must." Indeed. As Milo heads toward Dictionopolis he meets with the Whether Man ("for after all it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be"), passes through The Doldrums (populated by Lethargarians), and picks up a watchdog named Tock (who has a giant alarm clock for a body). The brilliant satire and double entendre intensifies in the Word Market, where after a brief scuffle with Officer Short Shrift, Milo and Tock set off toward the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the twin Princesses, Rhyme and Reason. Anyone with an appreciation for language, irony, or Alice in Wonderland-style adventure will adore this book for years on end. (Ages 8 and up)(less)
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At first The Phantom Tollbooth seems like just another children’s book (though the illustrations are by noted cartoonist Jules Feiffer – which should be your first clue). Milo Bloom, a child of somewhat indeterminate age and suffering from a very adult ennui, finds a mysterious package in his playroom one day. A tollbooth. But this is no ordinary tollbooth. Milo drives his play car through the booth into The Lands Beyond and finds himself on a enchanted, and bizarre, adventure with philosophical and allegorical overtones the like of Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz. Milo travels with Tock (a watchdog with a clock for a mid-section) and the Humbug (just as his name implies), through the Foothills of Confusion to Dictionopolis, on through the Forest of Sight and the Valley of Sound, on to Digitopolis, the harrowing Moutains of Ignorance (watch out for demons!), the Land of Expectations, and the Doldrums, passing the Sea of Knowledge and the island of Confusion. This books definitely deserves the moniker “a classic for readers young and old”!
Here’s a great interview with Juster for fans of TPT: http://archive.salon.com/books/int/2001/03/12/juster/
And one of my other favorite children’s book that I still love as an adult:
Eloise by Kay Thompson
The hilarious (and fantastically illustrated) tale of a precocious six-year-old girl who lives in the Plaza Hotel in NewYork. This is the kind of girl who grows up to be Amelia Earhart or Dorothy Parker or the first female president of the United States!