Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
A fast, funny, entertaining, intriguing, clever, educational 'Alice in Wonderland'-like fantasy children's book.
Recommended by Lucy Mangan in 'Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading', if there is one book that can be read by anyone in one day and can get children to crave more and just read more in general, it is 'The Phantom Tollbooth'. Reading it aloud to kids is a guaranteed fun event.
Funny thing is, this is a universally cherished fantasy classic, seemingly praised and talked about by everybody, and yet I'm not sure I'd even heard of it until I read 'Bookworm'. Shows what I know. Regardless, I'm glad to have gotten to know this treasure.
There is so much to talk about in 'The Phantom Tollbooth', from the silly, adorable, eccentric characters, the abstract ideas, the subtract ideas, the exploration of basically every thinkable human concept, the opposites, the wordplay, the naming of everything, the clever puns, the jokes, the social commentary, the hugely creative ways it educates readers, to the sketchy illustrations on nearly every page. But they have been discussed to death before by other reviewers, plus everyone else. So I'll mainly talk about Milo, the boy protagonist whom we follow in the mysterious fantasy land via an electric toy car having gone in a mysterious tollbooth found packaged in Milo's room one day after school.
Included in the instruction manual is: 'RESULTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED, BUT IF NOT PERFECTLY SATISFIED, YOUR WASTED TIME WILL BE REFUNDED.' - page 4
Milo might read throughout as a bit of a blank slate (he is only "normal" person in the "ordinary" world that we meet), but he represents every bored, dissatisfied, lethargic and unmotivated schoolchild who can and does exist anywhere. He is on the nihilistic side of looking at life; he might even have depression. He merely wonders through everyday existence, not knowing what he wants and where he is going, though he is always anxious to get home after another discontented day at school. He doesn't see the point in maths and geography and other subjects, so why try at all? Nothing's worth doing or seeing to him.
'"It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time," he remarked one day as he walked dejectedly home from school. "I can't see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is, or how to spell February." And, since no one bothered to explain otherwise, he regarded the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all.' - page 1
Anyone who has ever been a child at school and who doesn't relate to this on some level, has been very lucky indeed.
The depressed child is the ideal protagonist for a tale like this. Each path that Milo takes on his journey challenges him intellectually, teaching him that there is a purpose and function to certain criteria, concepts and studies, even if he doesn't see it yet from his young viewpoint. The more he learns and understands, the more stimulated, and therefore happy and motivated, he becomes; his car is not the only thing that drives him any farther. There are still stakes and dangers on his bizarre save-the-princesses adventure, but on a deeper level he is seeing the benefits of being a better, smarter person from this experience; far more than any dreary, routine lesson at school can offer him.
He is able to learn from what he isn't told as much as what he is told, to top it all off.
Subtly, Milo grows out of cynicism and laziness, into activism; and a fuller understanding of how and why the world is the way it is, and living life to the full while he is young and able to. No procrastination, habits, wasted effort, and worthless and useless and easy jobs! Milo is an intrepid, sympathetic hero with a very interesting assortment of friends and companions to help him out along the way.
'The Phantom Tollbooth' - Like 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Wizard of Oz' mixed together, with a drop (not a drip!) of a male hero. I would have preferred that more of the characters come back towards the climatic end, or are at least mentioned at all, like the Whether Man and Faintly Macabre the Which. The quick-pace narrative can rush from one point and beat to another, too. But it's hard not to smile just thinking about 'The Phantom Tollbooth'. It's like if Roald Dahl wrote high fantasy.
I also like the banished princesses, (Sweet) Rhyme and (Pure) Reason, Faintly Macabre the Which, and the Soundkeeper, as the few but crucial and no-less eccentric female players in the fantasy book. Without these women the world would fall apart. Intentionally, or unintentionally progressive for its time?
Another acclaimed fantasy classic checked off my list, and strongly recommended. The world right now would benefit if loads more people read about the tollbooth and the sens
Ignorance and indifference are dangerous. Education and wisdom are the keys to everything. And numbers are as important as words.
'"[...] you can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do."' - page 172
'"[...] so many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible."' - page 247
Final Score: 4/5
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