The Phantom Tollbooth

“It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time,”

As they ran, tall trees closed in around them and arched gracefully toward the sky. The late-afternoon sunlight leaped lightly from leaf to leaf, slid along branches and down trunks, and dropped finally to the ground in warm, luminous patches. A soft glow filled the air with the kind of light that made everything look sharp and clear and close enou

And, in the very room in which he sat, there were books that could take you anywhere, and things to invent, and make, and build, and break, and all the puzzle and excitement of everything he didn’t know—music to play, songs to sing, and worlds to imagine and then someday make real. His thoughts darted eagerly about as everything looked new—and wort

The rewards of laughter come with memorable cautions against the distractions of trivia: the recognition that a sense of humor can preserve purpose and proportion, and that even the smallest “but” can topple unjustified authority. Its fun packs a wallop.

I confess that I’m a little bored with adults who cannot get in touch with their inner child, and I know, without a shadow of doubt, that children are as well. We are wrong to expect that all readers will understand every nuance of a book at the same time. But all readers do find delight in the twists and turns of a good tale. The Phantom Tollbooth

it seemed a great wonder that the world, which was so large, could sometimes feel so small and empty.

Milo’s journey into the Lands Beyond (beyond the flyleaf, that is, with its spectacular Feiffer map) was mine as a reader, and my journey was his, and ours was the journey of all readers venturing into wonderful books, into a world made entirely, like Juster’s, of language, by language, about language. While you were there, everything seemed fraugh

“NONSENSE!” bellowed the Mathemagician. “Everyone understands numbers. No matter what language you speak, they always mean the same thing. A seven is a seven anywhere in the world.” “My goodness,” thought Milo, “everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best.”

“And remember, also,” added the Princess of Sweet Rhyme, “that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you’ll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.”