science fiction

After my first reading of 'The Phantom Tollbooth', it became,and still remains, my favorite young reader book. I wrote two book reports on it for my middle school reading classes. I even received a copy of it as a tenth birthday present. Ever since, I've read it from cover to cover at least once a year.

As a child, I enjoyed reading the strange adventures of a bored Milo embarking on his legendary quest. As an adult, I enjoy the tome's play on words, such as the Whether man ("It's more important to know whether there will be weather, rather than what the weather will be") and the Isle of Conclusions, a place you have to jump to to get there. I also love the book's personifying such abstract concepts as statistics, like the (literally) half a child that Milo meets who's the end result of the average family having 2.58 children. It also has neat takes on people's points of view, like the boy who grows down, rather than up. Needless to say, it's pretty apparent that even though I loved this book as a kid, I appreciate it much more as an adult.

If you remember reading this as a child, I strongly recommend you give it a look again. You'll likely pick up on quite a few things in the story that you might not have gotten the gist of in your youth!

'Late

I read this book last April. From the start I thought it was very creative and I admired Norton Juster's clever use of words. I'm not sure why, but most of the kids in my class hated this book. I think that it is pretty good. I'm beginning to believe there is something wrong with my class-they liked The House of Dies Drear more than this book! (Ugh, I personally believe The House of Dies Drear is one of the worst books I have ever read) They also said that The Phantom Tollbooth was boring, but I think it is far from that! My main complaint about this book is that Milo didn't really show much of his personality throughout the story, only in the beginning and end. Basically, the character development was poor. But I guess that's okay, because this book wasn't intended to be very serious or well developed. It just wanted to be fun, and I think it was an enjoyable read. I would recommend this book for students in grades 3-6, but all ages can like it.

This book is fun for all ages, one of the handful of great children's books that will still be fun to read 50 years from now. It's like Dr. Seuss for older children. Buy it. You won't be disappointed.