The Phantom Tollbooth
We tried The Phantom Tollbooth last year as a read-aloud, but we didn’t finish it. My older daughter was interested; my younger, not so much.
This week they brought home the audiobook, read by David Hyde Pierce (a.k.a. Niles Crane of Frasier), and it was such a dramatically different experience I returned to the library to get the book so I could read it myself. Part of it is that the expressiveness of the reader brought the book to life. But part of it, also, is that it emphasized the story’s continuity in the way a chapter or two a day fails to do.
Now I understand why it’s a classic, and why so many people say that when they read it as a child they called it the best book ever. It’s an absolutely dazzling show of wit and wisdom.
The main character is Milo, a bored little boy who finds a mysterious tollbooth in his room one day, drives through it to imaginary lands in his toy car, and embarks on a quest that ends up freeing the princesses Rhyme and Reason from their imprisonment in the Castle of the Air. The book is full of puns and metaphors, the central one being the search for wisdom. It’s a clever and entertaining satire on the excesses of academia. And for a child wondering why he has to go to school it captures the discomfort and confusion of finding your way in a land where everyone else seems to know the ropes but you.
It’s impossible to choose a favorite character, but if you’ve read the book, I’ll confess that the Dodecahedron and the Mathamagician would be among the finalists for me. I also enjoyed the Spelling Bee.
I’m not sure why I missed this book completely as a child, but I’m glad to have discovered it now — and gladder still that it will be a part of the furniture of my children’s minds.
7 Comments
Polly
We read The Phantom Tollbooth years ago because someone at a used booksale(stranger) so highly recommended it and pretty much insisted we buy it! :) We did like it, though I can’t remember much of the details now.
Janet
It struck me at first as too intellectual to be much fun for kids. But hearing it was a very different experience! It made me able to return to the book with a better sense of it all.
Amy @ Hope Is the Word
We haven’t read this one, either, ‘though I do have some memory of trying to read it last year. I shall seek out the audiobook!
Sherry
How coincidental! We are reading this book aloud here at Semicolon house. However, the reading is a bit broken up, a couple of chapters a day, and I think I’ll look at the library for the audio version. My youngest likes to listen to favorites over and over again, so she might particularly like to listen to this audiobook.
Liviania
I bet this one would be great on audiobook! I absolutely adored it as a child, so I’m glad you and your children found a way to enjoy THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH.
(The only bad thing about the audiobook is you don’t get to see Jules Feiffer’s wonderful illustrations.)
Margaret
I adore this book! I’ve read it many times and was thrilled to share it with my kids. It is lost on younger ones,though,in my experience. 10 and up, I think.
the Ink Slinger
Great review! The Phantom Tollbooth is absolutely fantastic – one of my all-time favorites. I’m glad you enjoyed it!