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Summary: The Phantom Tollbooth
Review: The Phantom Tollbooth by:Norton Juster is an exciting book.My fravorite part is when there is a big fight between the characters.I encourage all ages to read this book.
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Summary: Boring yet still recommended...
Review: Although this book was well written and very imaginative, I've found that it's very tedious and childish. To the minds of children today, they'll probably enjoy reading about far off places of imagination, adventure, and conquest with a happy ending. However, to a 16 year old, I find this book demeaning to my intelligence. I do recommend this book to a teacher trying to invoke the creativeness of imagination in the mind of their young students.
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Summary: Mind Food For Children And Adults Alike
Review: THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH is one of those rare works of art that appeals as much to adults as it does to children (other examples include CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND). I read this for the first time when I was eleven or twelve, and it immediately became my favorite book. The whole experience of it is like no other. THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH is a masterpiece of original thought and brilliantly clever writing, and works equally well as an escape on a rainy day and as something for your brain to chew on when you're stuck in the Doldrums (a feeling our hero Milo knows all too well).
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Summary: This book is destined to become a classic!
Review: This book is a magical tale that one cannot easily forget. I received it as a present from a good friend a couple of years back, and since then, I've read it at least five times. It's filled with far off (or close by) places of strangeness, and imaginative color. If you like fantasy, reality, wacky fiction, and fun, all twisted into a frenzic book based on an interesting quest, then this is the book for you. Heck, even if you don't like all the stuff I just mentioned, you'll still like it. You can't help it. Its just too good a book. I commend Norton Juster for this brilliant work of literature. Without this book, how else would someone know that letters really grow on trees? Or that numbers have to be mined? Trust me. If you read this book, you won't regret it.
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Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I have read this book many times, and I never tire of it.
Milo is a boy who is always wishing to be somewhere else. When he receives a magical tollbooth for his birthday, he is transported to the magical Kingdom of Wisdom, where words grow on trees in Dictionopolis, numbers are mined at Digitopolis, the day is conducted by Chroma the musician...and the land is in despair. The rulers of Digitopolis and Dictionopolis have been feuding for decades, and the city-states' peacemakers, the twins Rhyme and Reason, have gotten in the midst of the feud and been banished. Everyone now longs for them, even the brothers who banished them, but they have sworn not to agree on anything. Going around, through, over, under, and to the side of the obstacles he faces, Milo must use wit and courage to rescue Rhyme and Reason.
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Summary: I regret liking this book so much!
Review: The Phantom Tollbooth is among the handful of books I remember clearly from childhood, and by clearly I mean that I have treasured crystalline mental images of various scenes through the decades. It is also one of the first books I bought for my son when he was just a baby. I got a hardback just for the heck of it and set it aside.When I did read it to him at age five, he loved it -- his first "chapter book." And so we read it again by his demand. And again. And ... you can now guess why I regret liking it, as I've memorized it! I believe Norton Juster, an architect by trade (read an excellent interview in Salon), deserves the accolades this book draws. It is like an onion, Shrek might say: there are many layers to explore and many lessons subtle or not as Milo passes through subjects of varied difficulty. The wordplay and numberplay are actually quite good, and I normally don't digest punnery well. The drawings by Jules Feiffer are terrific, illustrative without being intrusive, without controlling those mental images we all construct for ourselves. The idealism that permeates the volume is simply beautiful. A classic, a must-read, though I concede and caution it may be dry and wordy for some. (I'm frankly surprised that my son enjoyed it so young.) But above all I look forward to when my son is old enough to read it by himself. :-)
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Summary: ...
Review: My, oh my. Still after forty years, this book remains precious. Virtually every review rates this book 5 stars. And it is! Its a pleasure to read to my class and a pleasure to read to myself...
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Summary: Unbelievably tedious
Review: I can see where this book could be a good classroom tool, because it teaches the reader a lot about words. But I found it unbelievably tedious and we finally stopped reading it. I was reading it to my son, who is only 8, but very bright. Neither of us could stand it. My older son, who is 11, seemed to like it better, but he's very pedantic, which seems to the kind of person this book is geared toward.
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Summary: 9 year old third grader (Shannon)
Review: I like this book bnecause I love going to different places.If you like adventure then you will get a kick out of this book!
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Summary: A Boy And His (Watch)Dog
Review: Ever been bored? I mean bored out of your mind bored? 12 years old and brain dead bored in the basement on a rainy Saturday afternoon bored? Well, my parents had put the old B&W TV down there and I discovered Godzilla, The Blob, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Invasion Of The Body Snatcher, and War Of The Worlds. Milo is a lot luckier. He gets a car and a tollbooth. And from there he starts on an amazing adventure full of starnge creatures, stranger people, and the strangest lands - all of which is wrapped in puns and just enough reality to make you wish you could go along. We got this for our kids and it became an instant favorite for bedtime reading. And I confess to having read ahead after lights out to see what came next. This is suggested for ages 9 to 12. Our youngest was totally engrossed in the story at 5, even if she didn't get all the puns. So buy this book and find a young person to read it with, if you need an excuse. You'll both love it.
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