Word up Wednesday: Book Review

Book review:

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

EXCELLENT.

If you read The Phantom Tollbooth as a kid, or if your mama read it to you when you were a mere babe, read it again. Protagonist Milo, along with Tock the dog and the ever-entertaining Humbug, make up the motley little crew trying to save – get this – Rhyme and Reason. The ‘good’ characters are lovable and the ‘bad’ quite comical. Author Norton Juster takes the reader from the Land of Expectations to the Word Market in Dictionopolis and beyond. Juster’s lessons are timeless and communicated through an incredibly creative and enjoyable storyline. In fact, I dog-eared many of The Phantom Tollbooth’s pages for easy access to awesome passages like the below:

“I think we’re lost,” panted the Humbug, collapsing into a large berrybush.

“Nonsense!” shouted Alec from the high branch on which he sat.

“Do you know where we are?” asked Milo.

“Certainly,” he replied, “we’re right here on this very spot. Besides, being lost is never a matter of not knowing where you are; it’s a matter of not knowing where you aren’t—and I don’t care at all about where I’m not.”

(Chapter 10: A Colorful Symphony)