To recap those who have forgotten since my last Nosy post (including me!) a Nosy Bookworm post involves picking books to read based upon the books next to mine in the hold pickup area at my local library. No, I don't take the other person's hold, I note down the title and put my own copy on hold. Several weeks or perhaps months ago, I was picking up a book and saw beside my hold the classic children's book, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Despite the apparent classic nature of this book, I had never read it, so I decided to give it a try. It apparently is very popular, as I had to wait awhile before my copy came in.
However, I could see why the book was so popular as I began. This book was amazing! My only regret - that I never read it as a child and had to wait to read it as a grown-up.
The Phantom Tollbooth is about a young boy named Milo. Milo is very bored and uninterested in things: school, life, education. He doesn't see the point of learning all the things he's taught in school. He doesn't really know what to do with himself. One fateful day, Milo returns home from school to find that a parcel has been delivered to him in his absence. He opens the parcel, follows the directions, and soon finds that he has built himself his very own tollbooth! Included with the tollbooth is fare for the booth, a rulebook, and a map. Milo is puzzled by the map - none of those places exist! However, this tollbooth promises a brief diversion from his usual boredom and so he picks a place at random, hops into his little toy car, and heads through the tollbooth.
Oh, what delights await the reader beyond that magic portal! After a few quick stops in Expectations and the Doldrums, Milo finds himself along the road to Dictionopolis, where he learns the origins of words, meets some new friends (the dog Tock and the Humbug) and ends up on a quest to restore Rhyme and Reason to Dictionopolis and Digitopolis. The quest is filled with magical places and creatures - the beautiful symphony that plays the colours of the world, a silent valley where sound was taken away, and the Island of Conclusions.
The author teaches the reader several important lessons, but wraps up the pill of learning in the most terrific jam of sparkling wordplay. Juster is rather Ffordian in his imagination and I do wonder if Jasper Fforde read The Phantom Tollbooth before embarking upon his Thursday Next adventures, as I can see the similarities in tone, style, and idea. If you liked Jasper Fforde, you will love The Phantom Tollbooth.
Because the book is, nominally, for children, it is short, the type is big and the pages are interrupted by scratchy pen and ink drawings that I could have rather done without. (I prefer to picture things for myself.) It would have been fun to read it as a child and enjoy the adventure and excitement, and then to read again as I grew older to absorb all the lessons tucked inside the wordplay. Nearly every adventure teaches Milo and his companions an important lesson, but the reader is so entertained by the author's cleverness that they either don't notice or don't mind the lessons being taught. The lessons are good lessons about the importance of learning and thinking and understanding and the book itself is a perfect example of how learning can help you.
In sum, this book is a lovely afternoon's read. And I would suggest such a read - just one big gulp all in one sitting. (Make sure you don't have anything else you're supposed to be doing first!) This is a classic of children's literature, and I do recommend placing a copy in every home with a child who can read. The child, and the parent, will probably be better off for it.
As you can see, Avro really loved the book this week. Cessna just had to come over to have a look and see what Avro was up to!
Avro's bum has turned into a lectern! Very scholarly ... I wonder if osmosis works any better on cats (as I recall from my school days, it doesn't much on humans).
ReplyDeleteWell, I'll let you know. As you can tell, Avro was pretty unimpressed to be used as a book prop, so if irritation impedes osmosis, it won't work.
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