My Favorite Books: The Phantom Tollbooth

This week's book is another one that wound up surprising me when I was young. I don't remember exactly how I was introduced to The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, just that I was home from school sick when I first read it. My mom probably got it from the library to keep me from watching TV. You see, when I was a kid, if anyone was home sick, my mom would put the portable black and white TV with the rabbit ears in their room so they could watch TV in bed (if you're wondering what rabbit ears are, forget about it--you wouldn't believe it if I told you, and yes until I was about 15 all the TV's--both of them--in our house were black and white).

Anyway, perhaps one of my sisters was sick that day, too and they had the TV, but I started reading the book not really knowing what it was about. It started with a bored boy named Milo who receives a tollbooth. It comes with instructions. Milo having nothing better to do follows the instructions kind of halfheartedly, not really expecting anything.

He pedals his toy car to the tollbooth, pays the toll and pedals on through. When he does, he's

transported to another world. Hey, cool! Like Milo, I was suddenly intrigued. As you may know there's nothing I love more than a story about someone who is transported to a new world. From there, Milo is caught up in a quest to rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason who were taken from the kingdom of Wisdom.

It was a great story, but the first time I read it I got only a fraction of the puns of the names and places in the book. As I got older, each time I read the book I recognized more and more. There was always something new to discover. That is truly the mark of a great book and the reason it's one of my favorites!

Here's a clip from Chuck Jones' movie version of The Phantom Tollbooth. Jones is best known for his Warner Brothers cartoons ad his version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In this bit, Milo loses his way in the Doldrums, which happens to all of us from time to time:

What's Christian Reading? The Phantom Tollbooth

Last week, Christian told me that he's tired of reading chapter books. So, I took him to a bookstore, and I told him that he could pick out any book under $10, hoping to get him hooked on a new series that he could continue reading by checking books out of the library.

Of course, he couldn't find anything. Everything I suggested was met by snorts of "No" or "Boring." Mind you, these weren't any random books, these were titles like Fablehaven, Gregor the Overlander, and the Pendragon series. Nothing sparked his interest.

It was at that point that I decided I was trying too hard. We went home and did some stuff. Later on, I casually mentioned that since he was bored, maybe he should read a book about another boy who was bored. I handed him my ancient copy of The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster.

He took it doubtfully and looked it over. Then he opened it annd read a page. "Well, maybe I can read a chapter," he said. By the end of the next day, he'd finished it. Now he's off and running again, reading some books he got from the library book sale this past weekend. Thank goodness for the classics.

Here's what Christian says The Phantom Tollbooth is about.

"It is about a boy named Milo who has nothing to do and gets a tollbooth and a toy car mailed to him. When he drives into the tollbooth it transports him to another world. He meets the watchdog, Tock. Tock has a big clock in his side. He and Tock have to rescue the two princesses, Rhyme and Reason. He makes it to a city, Dictionopolis, and meets the king.

"Milo then is given the mission to find Rhyme and Reason. He goes to Digitopolis and meets a second king who also asks him to rescue the princesses. There is a war between letters and numbers. Rescuing the princesses will help end it.

"Then, he goes through the land of the demons. They live in the Mountains of Ignorance. It's not a nice place. He also has to jump to the Island of Conclusions. I thought that was funny."

Here's what Christian liked best about the book.

"I liked when he met Tock. Tock  wound up being a good friend to Milo. Milo didn't have any friends before Tock. That's why I like that part so much."

Was there anything that you didn't like?

"There wasn't anything that I didn't like. It was a really great book."

So, how did Christian rate The Phantom Tollbooth?

He gives it 5 out of 5 flaming monkey heads.

Writing--It's Fantastic!

So, how did I get started writing fantasy, and writing it for tweens? I've always loved to read. Reading has been a staple ever since I read my first book on my own about a farmer who takes a big wheel of cheese to the market in town in a wheelbarrow, and loses it. It rolls up hill and down with the farmer chasing after it.

But that's kind of beside the point. My mother was (and is) of the opinion that a love of reading should be cultivated at a young age, and nurtured through those "difficult" middle grade years. In an effort to do this, she started reading to myself and my four siblings at the dinner table.

Every night when dinner was over, and the dishes had been cleared away, my mom would read a chapter of a book. The first book she read to us was "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis, the first in the Chronicles of Narnia series. I must have been 12 or 13 and I was entranced by the book. It let my imagination take flight, and took me to places I'd never known existed. Here's a picture of the edition she read to us from:

It's the 70's version. Kind of harkens back to the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. There's something a little Paul and Ringoish about Peter and Edmund.

I'd always been a fan of fantasy to some degree. In addition to my love of "Where the Wild Things Are" when I was younger, I also loved "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Phantom Tollbooth", among others. But on some level, I connected more deeply with this book.

Mom read the whole book over the course of a couple of weeks. Then, she moved on to book 2 of the Chronicles, "Prince Caspian". She read one or two more, but by the time she'd finished with book two, I'd raced far ahead. In no time, I'd devoured all seven books of the Chronicles and was looking for more.



That's when my mom suggested I check out "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. That was well and truly it. I was hooked. From there it was on to "The Lord of the Rings". Things haven't been the same since.



This started me on my way. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to write fantasy novels for children. I started right away. I made the mistake of trying to write an 8th book of the Chronicles of Narnia--not a good idea. Then, I started a fantasy epic of my own inspiration, complete with a map and everything.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I don't think anything has survived from that ill fated manuscript. After that I bided my time. Something else grabbed my writing attention around this time and on into high school and college--comedy. But that's a story for another day.