Milo was bored. He’d rush home from school every day, only to sit in his room with nothing to do until dinner. This happened day after day, until the day he went home and found a package in his room. He didn’t know where it came from, and he didn’t know how it had gotten there, but when he opened it he found a tollbooth. He assembled it, gathered the map and coins that came with it, and climbed into his small electric car.
Although it was just in his bedroom, Milo drove up to the tollbooth and dropped in his coin, and drove on. In an instant, he was transported to a new land, where words are delicious, numbers are magic, and all that’s needed to set everything right is for someone to rescue the princesses, Rhyme and Reason.
As Milo goes on his journey, he meets unbelievable characters like the Spelling Bee (b-e-e), the Whether Man, a Which, Short Shrift, and so many others. He gets to discover the importance of time, how to change your point of view, what sound adds to life, and why it’s so critical to keep learning. The speed of the wordplay and the power in the ideas propel Milo forward in his quest and help to find Rhyme and Reason.
I first discovered The Phantom Tollbooth as a kid wandering through the stacks of my local library. Little did I know the first time I would pull that book off the shelf that I would set of on my own adventure as I followed along with Milo’s. I have read this book more times than I can remember, and every time is just as special as the original.
This time, I listened to the audio book, read by Rainn Wilson, best known for playing Dwight Schrute on The Office. And I enjoyed every minute of it. But the best part for me was the introduction, as it was written and read by the author Norton Juster. I loved this audio version, I thought Rainn Wilson did a beautiful job bringing these characters to life, and I strongly recommend this version of the book for kids and for adults alike.