The Phantom Tollbooth
The Phantom Tollbooth
Written by Norton Juster
Illustrated by Jules Feiffer
New York, Epstein and Carroll, 1961
6.5" x 9.5"
Kerlan Collection, Children's Literature Research Collections
University of Minnesota Libraries
The young hero who journeys to the allegorical Lands Beyond and back starts out as a bored school child and returns home with his eyes and mind open wide to the world. What accounts for Milo's extreme makeover? Not tollbooth magic so much as a series of Oz- or Alice-like encounters with walking paradoxes, human riddles, and other ridiculous obsessives. These and other absurdities test Milo's wits as he learns, in the best progressive way, to chart his own path to Rhyme and Reason—and to trust his own ideas.