The Phantom Tollbooth Before You Read the Chapter
Perfect for Tollbooth obsessives…
Back on September 20th, we celebrated Building a Library'due south first anniversary and announced that, the post-obit calendar week, I was finally going to beginning reading The Phantom Tollbooth – the book that inspired this web log – to my almost 6-year-old daughter. And then… I took the following week off. Anti-climatic, I know, but it was a crazy calendar week with swim classes and TWO soccer games and I was exhausted and blocked and I apologize. But, now that all my excuses are out on the tabular array, I DID start reading The Phantom Tollbooth with my girl terminal week and, so far, it'due south been a pretty positive experience.
Let me state up front that I was a little worried that my girl was as well young for The Phantom Tollbooth. Norton Juster expertly plays with language and various abstruse concepts throughout the book and I was concerned that aspects of the text would go over her head. As far equally I can remember, I probably first encountered The Phantom Tollbooth when I was eight or nine, and then I volition admit that I am (even so) concerned that I might be trying to introduce the novel to my daughter at too early an historic period. But, regardless of those concerns, I wanted to give Phantom Tollbooth a shot in our coveted bedtime reading slot final week and I'm going to periodically give updates on how the reading is going and then far.
I'k calling this series " Phantom Tollbooth: Get-go Read" and I'g planning to construction the updates in a like manner to the re-read or rewatch series that you can find on Tor.com or The Onion'southward AV Club. For those unfamiliar, in those series, the websites selection a book or a movie and a person episodically blogs their reaction to revisiting those works. For example, the blogger might post their ongoing reaction to rewatching all iii seasons of Arrested Development or re-reading Stephen Male monarch'south Nighttime Tower books, affiliate-by-chapter.
For Phantom Tollbooth, I'm going to adopt a chapter-by-chapter model, although some nights, we'll be reading multiple chapters. For our starting time week, nosotros started slow, only making it through the first four chapters. In the time to come, we may be moving through the volume at a dissimilar pace, largely determined past what nosotros've got going on that week. (Fair Warning: A trip to NYC will limit our progress this weekend.) I'll give a quick summary of the affiliate, my thoughts, my daughter's reactions, and I might even toss in a few pieces of trivia from Leonard S. Marcus' fantastic The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth as well.
Are we all set up? Excuses fabricated and plans delineated? Great. And, with that, let u.s.a. begin…
THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH FIRST READ: CHAPTERS 1 AND 2 – "Milo" and "Across Expectations"
CHAPTER ONE: "MILO"
"I practice promise this is an interesting game, otherwise the afternoon will be then terribly dull." – Milo, The Phantom Tollbooth
Santa got my letter!
The opening passages of The Phantom Tollbooth were what sold me on the book as a kid. In a few short paragraphs, Norton Juster wonderfully captures the itchy, nagging colorlessness that can easily consume a child in the wrong frame of mind. I love comedian Louis C.G.'s inspired riff on how "Everything's Astonishing and Nobody's Happy" and it shares some nice thematic parallels to initial mindset of Milo, the protagonist of The Phantom Tollbooth. To quote Juster:
There in one case was a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself – not just sometimes, but always.
When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to exist in. On the way he thought about coming habitation, and coming dwelling house he thought nigh going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he's bothered. Nothing really interested him – least of all the things that should accept.
It's an incredibly powerful opening and, afterward reading into information technology a few paragraphs, I turned to my daughter and asked, "Do you ever experience like that?" "Yes," she replied. "I get bored a lot."
Milo rushes home from schoolhouse – "for while he was never broken-hearted to be where he was going, he liked to go at that place as quickly every bit possible" – and flops into a chair, consumed with the awful futurity of spending some other boring afternoon with his boring books and his ho-hum toys and nothing particularly interesting to do. At that moment, Milo notices a big package in his room, a box addressed simply "FOR MILO, WHO HAS PLENTY OF TIME."
My daughter seriously covets Milo's car…
Within the box, Milo finds "ONE 18-carat TURNPIKE TOLLBOOTH" with instructions for its assembly and employ. It also comes with 3 coins for paying tolls, precautionary signs, a map of the lands beyond ("upward to engagement and carefully drawn past master cartographers, depicting natural and man-fabricated features"), and a volume of rules and traffic regulations.
Our family unit often travels across the country past motorcar – we're professional route-trippers – then, fortunately, I didn't have to explain to my daughter what exactly a "tollbooth" was. After Milo opened the box, my daughter asked "That'south similar in Ohio when they make you pay money to use the road and at that place'southward the change saucepan and the arm, correct?" "Yes," I replied. "Just similar that." "OK…"
Milo assembles the tollbooth and, "since, at the fourth dimension, there was cypher else he wanted to play with," he sets everything up, dusts off his small electric toy car, and prepares to make his fashion through the tollbooth. He randomly pokes his finger at the map in search of a destination – "Dictionopolis… Oh, well, I might besides go there equally anywhere" – deposits his coin, and drives off in his toy car through the tollbooth.
Nosotros stopped at the end of this chapter and I asked my daughter for her opinions and so far. I told her I was writing about this for my blog, so she told me to "write all this down."
In her ain words:
"I similar information technology. It'south a very expert book. I am worried that it will exist boring, simply I like that he's going to accept an chance. He's going to have an adventure, right, Dad? (Dad nods head.) Good. I wish I had a machine like that. Who left him the tollbooth? Do they ever tell you? And Dictionopolis – I know that's supposed to audio like "lexicon," so I bet there will exist a lot of words, perchance like in WordWorld. (For those unfamiliar, WordWorld is a PBS Kids show for preschoolers virtually a undiscriminating filled with characters physically synthetic out of words – for example, the bear's head is the letter "B" and her feet are the letter "R", etc.)
When I said "Allow'south motion on to chapter 2," she nodded and said, "Right. To the adventure."
Affiliate Ii: "Beyond EXPECTATIONS"
"What a strange thing to have happen." – Milo, The Phantom Tollbooth
I don't think that toll money is beingness used for any noticable road-comeback projects on this stretch of highway…
Affiliate Two opens with Milo surprised to find himself speeding downwards an "unfamiliar state highway." ("Is he in Narnia, Dad?" my daughter asked, having never read the Narnia books nor seen the Narnia movies. "No," I answered. "But skillful guess.") Milo comments about how this game is "much more serious than I thought" and seems happy for the change of pace. He stops next to a small-scale house with a sign that reads: "WELCOME TO EXPECTATIONS. INFORMATION, PREDICTIONS, AND Communication CHEERFULLY OFFERED. PARK HERE AND Blow HORN."
Milo honks and out runs the Whether Human, a jolly person with the unfortunate habit of repeating himself over and over again. I volition admit – the arrival of the Whether Man marked our showtime stumbling cake while reading. For any reason, my girl took an instant dislike to the character, even though he's but around for a few pages. Milo, at starting time, thought he was the "Weather Man", and and then did my daughter, simply, as I tried to explicate what he meant past "WHETHER" – "Y'all know, like whether or not" – my girl crunched up her nose and said, "I don't like it. It'south confusing."
I tried to explain, "Well, they're playing around with the meanings of words. Like, isn't it funny to go to a identify actually chosen EXPECTATIONS right before you get to the place you desire to go?" She shot me a dark expect in response. "I approximate." At this signal, I apparently looked dejected and my girl grabbed my mitt and said, "But I'm notwithstanding actually liking information technology, Daddy," which was both incredibly sweetness and a niggling pathetic. She can tell that I REALLY desire her to like this book and she's trying to protect my feelings. Once again, that'south adorable, but it'south insane for me to put that kind of baggage onto a kid. That's like a guaranteed way for me to ensure that she won't enjoy The Phantom Tollbooth.
Enter Tock the Watchdog, looking annoyed…
So my new mission is to exist equally nonchalant as possible about reading Phantom Tollbooth with my girl. If she wants to read it, smashing. If not, no big deal. I only need to get her to stop thinking that I have a vested interest in her enjoying this book. (Fifty-fifty though I practise.)
OK, permit'southward go out parental paranoia behind and get back to the story, Milo somewhen leaves the Whether Homo, commenting that, "Information technology's all very well to spend time in Expectations, just talking to that foreign man all day would certainly become me nowhere." As Milo drives abroad from Expectations, he soon becomes bored and distracted, and finds himself wandering into an increasingly greyness and monotone landscape. His machine slows down until it can motility no longer and Milo discovers that he'due south found his mode into the Doldrums, "where nothing e'er happens and zero ever changes."
In the Doldrums, Milo meets the Lethargarians, who explain to the young boy how completely exhausting it can be to practise goose egg all day. Equally they laboriously pause down their daily schedule of loafing, lounging, and dillydallying, Milo finds himself yawning and falling in step with their boredom – that is, until the inflow of the Watchdog. The Watchdog (afterwards known every bit Tock) is reviled by the Lethargarians because "He's e'er sniffing around to see that nobody wastes time." When the Watchdog finally appears, he angrily chases off the Lethargarians and confronts Milo with "What are you lot doing here?"
Tock Really doesn't look that pleased with Milo on the cover…
(At this signal, my daughter said, "That dog is mad. Look at him in that picture. I thought he and Milo were friends. They're friends on the cover of the book." I and so pointed that that Tock doesn't exactly look particularly pleased with Milo on the embrace of The Phantom Tollbooth, but chop-chop added, "OK, you're right, they get friends after – just wait.")
After the Watchdog recoils at Milo'south proffer that he'southward just "killing time," he further bristles at Milo's request for assist to observe the fashion to Dictionopolis. "Help yous! You must help yourself," the Watchdog argues.
Next comes one of my favorite exchanges in the whole book:
"I suppose yous know why you got stuck [in the Doldroms]."
"I gauge I just wasn't thinking," said Milo.
"PRECISELY," shouted the dog as his alert went off once more. "Now you know what y'all must do."
"I'm afraid I don't," admitted Milo, feeling quite stupid.
"Well," continued the watchdog impatiently, "since yous got here by not thinking, information technology seems reasonable to expect that, in guild to become out, you must offset thinking."
And, with that, Milo starts thinking, his car starts moving again, and the Watchdog hops into the rider seat, request, "Do y'all mind if I arrive? I beloved car rides."
(That line made my daughter express joy out loud.)
So Milo and the Watchdog get back on the route, headed towards Dictionopolis and Affiliate Iii.
Again, I stopped my daughter and asked her what she thought after Affiliate Ii. In her words:
"It'south confusing sometimes. I really got confused past the Whether Man. I don't go what you mean by a 'whether or not' man. But I liked the Doldroms, that was only people being bored, and I liked the Watchdog. I think it'due south cool that thinking makes his car move."
So, that'south united states done reading capacity one and two of The Phantom Tollbooth. I'll attempt to post my daughter's reaction to chapter three soon – every bit a preview, just know that at that place's a moment in chapter iii that made my kid say out loud, "OH! So THAT's what the book is almost!" Promise this isn't too painful to follow along with. If you have your own memories of reading The Phantom Tollbooth, please feel complimentary to share them in the comments department beneath.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON CHAPTER One AND Affiliate TWO FROM THE ANNOTATED PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH:
With every installment of "Phantom Tollbooth: First Read", I'yard going to end with my favorite asset of information related to each chapter gleaned from Leonard Marcus' terrific annotated edition of The Phantom Tollbooth. Hither goes:
Affiliate ONE – "MILO"
Referring to the assembly instructions for the tollbooth on page 7, specifically the line "hands assembled at abode."
- Juster recalled: "When I was a child, almost all presents, information technology seemed, came in pieces and had to exist put together. Some I loved, like erector sets and model airplanes. In fact, I think I learned to read well, and carefully, by poring over the directions for putting together model airplanes. … To me whatsoever real nowadays required participation and patience" (N.J., Notes I, p. four).
CHAPTER TWO – "BEYOND EXPECTATIONS"
Referring to the moment when the Watchdog jumps into the car with Milo at the end of the chapter.
- Maurice Sendak singled out this scene as a favorite: "You know you're in excellent hands when, in the midst of some nutty, didactic dialogue, the author disarms you lot. … It's what Tock, the literal watchdog … says next that makes my heart melt, as information technology did on my very outset reading way dorsum when: 'Do you mind if I get in? I honey automobile rides.' At that place is the teeming-brained Norton Juster touching merely the right note at just the right moment" ("An Appreciation," by Grand.S. for the 35th-anniversary U.S. edition, 1996).
Source: http://www.buildingalibrary.com/young-adult-books/our-phantom-tollbooth-first-read-kicks-off-chapters-one-and-two/621
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