Book Sharing Monday

Logan and I just finished one of my all-time favorite books from childhood. It was the first chapter book I ever read by myself, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. First published in 1961, it introduces us to a bored and apathetic little boy named Milo, and what happens after he comes home from school one day to find a package containing a mysterious tollbooth in his bedroom. Having nothing better to do, he climbs into his little toy car, unfolds the enclosed map of The Lands Beyond ("Beyond what?" Milo wonders), and drives through the booth into a magical land where he befriends the huge dog Tock and the ever-anxious Humbug. Before he knows it, he and his new companions are embarking on a dangerous and difficult quest through the Kingdom of Wisdom to save a pair of exiled princesses.

For someone like me, who loves words so much I could eat them up (and in the city of Dictionopolis, they can!), this story is a smorgasbord of clever wordplay that is great fun to read aloud with your kids. The story is just as magical as I remembered, and the illustrations by Jules Feiffer are terrific, especially the map of The Lands Beyond at the front of the book. Logan referred to it again and again to determine where exactly the action was taking place.

Highly recommended for bibliophiles of all ages.