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 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) -- Amazon.com "

 

This book has been graded for interest at 8-12 years.

There are 279 pages in this book. This book was published 2011 by Random House USA Inc .

Jules Feiffer is an American cartoonist, author and illustrator. He has won a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartoons in The Village Voice and an Academy Award for his animated short Munro. He illustrated Norton Juster's children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth. In 2004 he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame and was guveb a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Writers Guild of America. He lives in New York City. Norton Juster was born in 1929, and trained as an architect. The Phantom Tollbooth, his most famous book, won the George C. Stone Center for Children's Books Award.