The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

“So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.” 

 Back when I was assembling my original list for the Classics Club, I knew that I wanted to include a section for children's literature. I did a bit of research to explore my options, and Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth kept popping up. I had heard of this book before, of course, but I somehow missed reading it when I was a kid. I didn't even own a copy.  As this novel is pretty much universally beloved by young and old readers alike, I decided that it had to go on my list. This month, I finally gave it a shot.

The plot follows a young boy named Milo, who at the beginning of the story is shown to be a rather gloomy, unimaginative child. He is always bored and doesn't see the point in doing things like going to school, reading books, or even playing with his many toys. Everything feels like a waste of time to him and he spends most of his days moping around his house. He regards seeking knowledge as the biggest waste of time of all, because he doesn't see the point in learning things he will probably never use.

His small, dull world changes, when one afternoon after school he finds a tollbooth playset in his room. Intrigued, he builds the tollbooth, reads the instructions for it, reviews the included map, and drives through in his toy car. Instantly, he is whisked away to the fantastical Lands Beyond and the real adventure begins. Accompanied by Tock the talking watchdog and the Humbug (who really is a gigantic, ill-tempered bug), Milo visits many interesting places. In Dictionopolis, he learns all about how words are made from King Azaz. In the Forest of Sight, he learns about all the different ways one can look at things. In Digitopolis, he learns all about how to use numbers from the Mathemagician. He even goes on a dangerous quest to the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason.

In each place Milo visits, he learns about how big and interesting the world really is. Soon, he abandons his original feelings of boredom and pointlessness and starts to understand how adventures lie everywhere, if you put in enough effort to find them. He also finally understands how learning about the world and going to school are important, as they will help him to figure out the problems he will come up against later on in his life. He returns home a changed boy, entirely for the better.

This book might sound boring from the description, since it places such a heavy emphasis on the importance of education, but it was actually completely charming. There is deep wisdom hiding behind the whimsy in Juster's prose that leaves the reader feeling inspired instead of lectured. The narration style reminded me strongly of Alice in Wonderland, with the impossible and absurd treated as commonplace. The puns and humor included were spot-on and were a joy to read. The characters were all very colorful and well-written as well, with several memorable figures filling up the pages. This is certainly a book that adults should read out loud to children, as it explores worthy themes in such an entertaining and engaging way.

I enjoyed everything in The Phantom Tollbooth, but I think my favorite section was the chapter in which Milo has to contend with the demons in the Mountains of Ignorance. He meets the Everpresent Wordsnatcher, who constantly twists other peoples words and presents them out of context, the Terrible Trivium, who loads people up with meaningless tasks to keep them from achieving their goals, the demon of insincerity, who doesn't mean a word he says and is afraid of everything, the Gelatinous Giant, who blends in to his surroundings because he is afraid to stand out, and the Senses Taker, who takes people's sense of purpose and duty by filling their heads with illusions of what they want to see. For each demon that was described, I could think of an exact real-world scenario to match it. This part resonated strongly with me and made me both laugh and think about how demons like this have affected my real life.

I wish that I had discovered The Phantom Tollbooth when I was a child, so that I could have that warm, nostalgic kind of love for it that only a kid can have for their favorite book. As I didn't, however, all I can do is appreciate this little gem for what it is now, a brilliant story about how to appreciate the everyday wonders in the world around us. This novel certainly deserves its reputation as a classic of children's literature. I enjoyed it immensely and will certainly be recommending it to anyone who hasn't discovered its simple pleasures yet.


Challenge Tally:
Classics Club (#28 on my list): 22/100

Total Books Read in 2018: 2