Synopsis: For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason! Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams… -Goodreads

Review: For me The Phantom Tollbooth will always be one of the most memorable and wonderful books of my childhood. I don’t even mean that simply as in “what a great book” but instead that it is literally full of wonder. This book manages to take so many of the mundane concepts we all take for granted and shows us how much fun they can be, it’s all in how you look at it.

Through a tollbooth that appears in his bedroom (sensing he could use a little adventure), Milo visits a world of pure imagination where cities and towns are all centered around wonderful ideas and aspects of every day life that we can sometimes take for granted. He eventually meets some silly companions and the three of them take off on a mission to bring Rhyme and Reason back from their imprisonment.

I wont go too far into all of the strange situations Milo, Tock and the Humbug get themselves into as no matter how old you are, reading this book for the first time is an adventure worth taking. I will say that my favorite part of the story, where the gang manages to get stuck doing unimportant tasks because it’s easier than facing the big scary job they have ahead of them, has stuck with me for about fifteen years now.

Every chapter will get you thinking and by the end of the book you will be looking at the world around you differently. Life is what you make of it, and if nothing else The Phantom Tollbooth has showed me that the only limits are those of your imagination.

Buy the book @Amazon (US) @Amazon (CAN)

Rating:

Second Opinions:
@The Paris Review 
@YA Books Central
@The Shabby Rabbit