The Phantom Tollbooth

By: Norton Juster / Foreword By: Norton Juster / Narrated By: Rainn Wilson

Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins

The audiobook that spawned an entire Newsletter…!

Here we go! The audiobook that spawned lengthy discussions in our little audiobook club— i.e. My mom and I sat quietly, politely baffled as we watched Big Sis explain 0 and Infinity to us. It made muuuuuuch more sense when we listened to a book about a Buddhist and the same concept was presented in Zen-speak so I’m not a TOTAL idiot… just oh saaaay 4/5ths?

Which is a delightful way to segue into this, The Phantom Tollbooth, where young Milo travels to the world of numbers as expressed via mathematics—kinda sorta— (A subject in school he haaaates!) in the land of Digitopolis after spending some time in the land of Dictionopolis where all is expressed via words—kinda sorta. The two lands make up the divided Kingdom of Wisdom with Dictionopolis ruled by King Azaz (The Unabridged!) and Digitopolis ruled by the Mathemagician.

It all starts in our own very mundane world with Milo being a boy who looooathes school… and well, he pretty much doesn’t have very much use for ANYthing. He certainly has far too much time on his hands, with nary a thing to do, always wanting to be somewhere else, then NOT being thrilled when he gets to elsewhere either.

Enter the mysterious package which has a Tollbooth in it… which Milo zooms through riding his electric toy car and thus! winds up meeting the Whether Man, who always posits whether one thing will happen or whether it won’t; if you expect EVERYthing, the UNexpected will never take you by surprise… This baffles Milo who zones out accordingly and winds him up in The Doldrums, where it’s not only the thing to Waste Time, but to actively avoid Thinking altogether.

And so this lovely little gem of a book introduces us to SUCH a variety of Big Ideas to go with priceless Little Pearls of Wisdom, where the Concrete and Absolute butt heads with Flights of Fancy and All Things Punny. Characters are introduced such as Tock the Watchdog who’s aaaaallll about Thinking (“Faster!” he cries to Milo as they begin to leave The Doldrums, “think harder!”), an officer of the Law named Shrift (Who’s really quite short… and can be prone to doling out heavy penalties without consideration, -thus- giving Milo and Tock short shrift… I knoooow!), all the way to the Spelling Bee who dukes it out with the Humbug.

Rainn Wilson narrates this oh so deLIGHTfully, crafting each and every character lovingly, saving them from becoming caricatures who’d be eye-roll-inducing and instead transforming them to where their uniqueness would give the young (Or Young at Heart!) Food for Thought. Speaking of Food? Okay, dude! That’s entirely where my sister flew to the roof, enraptured that When You Eat More, You’re Hungry More, and so on and so on and so on. I’m not quiiiiiite sure what THAT means, but rest assured that if Big Sis said it, it IS Mathematically Sound, like, REALLY! Besides which, this banquet takes place under the aegis of the Mathemagician, so it’s GOTTA be true! Wilson narrates aaaaalll of this as tho’ reading to his own kid(s) (One of whom does a snippet as the .58 child—Cuz you know, most families have 2.58 children… so you know…). Honestly, it felt like Wilson was soothingly telling me a story as I was all tucked into bed, ready for a bit of mind expansion to get me juuuuuust right for slumber.

Milo along with Tock along with the Humbug undertake the grandest of adventures, trying to bring the Princesses Rhyme and Reason back to make the Kingdom of Wisdom whole again, and many a Conclusion is Jumped To, and p’raps the concept of Perspective is learnt as well (Just ask the Littlest Giant in the world who just also happens to be the Fattest Thin Man you’ll ever see, depending on your… SAY IT: Perspective!). Through this, Milo soon learns to, well, think, and to, well, enjoy the process of discovery. He learns about courage and about the wonders of having true boon companions.

The ending had our little audiobook club deep in discussions as well, as author Norton Juster’s motivations for writing were considered. Was this a matter of intelligence being held over ignorance, as tho’ the ignorant aren’t quiiiiite as worthy? -OR- as I believed: That maybe, just maybe, it was to open a wonderland of a quest for younguns? That a love of lifelong learning might be embraced and held dear. Cuz Milo learns a LOT, and whereas once he couldn’t stand Time or School or Getting Places. Now he knows the way.

And we, my fellow Accomplice, get to remember our own fears and dreads from way back from the time we were but kneeeee-high to crickets. We get to remember when things clicked along the way, where the lightbulbs went off, how things that were once conFOUNding now made perfect sense.

And hey! Ya gotta admit… SAY IT: That’s AWEsome! Don’t think the truly young will get all the puns or ideas, but oh how each one will delight You!