The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

On the back of my copy of this book, under the blurb, is the customary quote. This time it comes from Amanda Foreman, writing in the Sunday Times. "I want to shout about The Phantom Tollbooth from the rooftops. I want to stand in Waterloo and press copies into people's hands. This is a book that should be in every home." Lofty praise to live up to. So do I agree? Look at my rating- what do you think?! As a child, I loved to read and to be read to, loved the sound of words and the sound of my own voice (still do, I'm afraid - frankly if a job were available where I could do nothing but read aloud all day, complete with silly ...  Read the complete review

I read this book during my primary school years and as I remembered findly of it I decided to purhcase it into my teenage years and memories came flooding back, this is the first book I can really remember getting into properly and reading again at a much later date. Never read or heard of Norton Juster before this book and haven't since either, this book is about a young boy who ends up dreaming himself being given a tollbooth (it's been a while since i read it, what even is a tollbooth!?), as he steps into this tollbooth he gets sent away to a magical world encountering many different people and creatures such as the dog clock, tock, the word wizards ...  Read the complete review

I have to say from the outset that this is one of my favourite all time reads. I first picked up this gem when I was 10 and we were at a favourite used book store. At 10, I picked it because the cover looked interesting (different cover altogether from the current one) and the title seemed odd. My parents allowed it into the to buy pile because of its reputation, of which I was clueless at the time. I sat down to read it one Saturday morning and was still reading it while I ate lunch, and had to be forced from it at dinner, and was still reading it at bedtime. This is one of the books that I would return to again and again and again, until it sadly fell apart in my mid ...  Read the complete review

Milo is always bored but can't be bothered to do anything. One day he gets home from school to find a mysterious parcel which proves to be a DIY Tollbooth, the sort where you pay to travel on bridges or foreign motorways. Milo pays his money, drives his toy car through, and enters an incredible world of weird characters obsessed by words and numbers. For anyone, young or old, who loves playing with words this book is compulsive and extremely funny. Meet the Tock, the watchdog who thinks killing time is a dreadful crime, travel in the car with no engine (it goes without saying), visit the Island of Conclusions (its easy to get to it because you just have to ...  Read the complete review

Milo is never happy where he is and is bored by just about everything! Nothing seems worth the effort to him, until one day a mysterious package arrives containing the Phantom Tollbooth (and accessories!). He enters the Kingdom of Wisdom and begins a grand adventure of self-discovery. He escapes from the Doldrums (a most Dangerous place!) and makes it to Dictionopolis, the city from which all letters are grown and words are sold at market. There he learns the Power of Words and meets King Azaz the Unabridged, who sends him on a perilous quest. Together with his friends- Tock, the Watchdog who can only Tick, and the easily swayed, cantankerous Humbug, Milo is ...  Read the complete review