Day 5, Chapters 17-20 of Phantom Tollbooth

I have finished the book! That would be pages 211-the end. This final section summed up the book, like most books do. Milo, the main character, rescued the two trapped princesses. When he gets back to town every one is very proud of him, that’s when the Mathemagician tells him that his task was “impossible, completely impossible” (247). I thought that was a pretty cool idea, that you can do anything as long as you don’t know it is impossible. Milo ends up taking his little car back home. Then he finds out the tollbooth is gone, which makes him sad. There was a note that told him that other kids needed a turn to go on an adventure. Milo finally learns about important things to do in life, and that his time is valuable. In the beginning of the book, he was always bored, now he won’t have that problem. The most important symbol in this book is the tollbooth. It allowed Milo to go on a long adventure and coming home about the same time. I think he may have just dreamed it all. Without the tollbooth there would not have been a story. I think the author did a great job writing this book. He really makes it a book you won’t want to put down. How would you like to take a trip through the tollbooth? Have you ever stopped to think how valuable time is too us, and not to waste it? I wish there was a sequel.

Day 4, Chapters 13-16of Phantom Tollbooth

After reading the next section, pages 160-210 of The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, I decided that I can’t wait to finish the book. It has been a great read so far. Milo, the main character starts off on his way to another city, but he first ends up on the Island of Conclusions. When he asked Canby how he got here he explained, “You jumped, of course”(p168). I thought it was funny that when you jump to conclusions, you actually jump to the Island of Conclusions. This has been a big pattern in the book where the author takes a lot of thing literally. Once they got to Digitopolis, Milo meets Dodecahedron, who happens to have 12 faces just like the shape he is. In this city there is a numbers mine, where you mine for numbers. Only the numbers they mine are important, that just throw out the all the gems that we would think have value. There is also a path that leads to infinity in this town. Everything is different here, where they eat subtraction soup when their full and become even hungrier. I think it’s weird that everything is always the opposite in this book. Then he meets a kid where only .58 of him is there because he is based on averages where the average family has 2.58 children. I thought this was just messed up because every family has 1.3 cars, and he drives the .3 of a car. Could you even imagine such a different world?

Day 3, Chapters 9-12 of Phantom Tollbooth

I have the read the next four chapters. It includes pages 101-159 of the Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. The main character Milo develops a lot in this section. He starts off in a strange land where a boy said, “in my family, everyone is born in the air, with his head at exactly the height it’s going to be when he’s and adult, and then we all grow toward the ground”(p104). I think this is very weird yet logical. Milo learns about his changing point of view as he grows. Next, he stumbles upon a symphony, but they don’t make music, they play the colors. Without them the world would be black and white. Later, he learns about the man that makes every sound in the world. Sometimes it is hard for me to imagine all these crazy new ideas in the book; I don’t know how Milo keeps up with it. He then goes through silent valley, where everyone is holding signs because when they talk you can’t hear them. He visits the Soundkeeper to try to get the noise back. She won’t, because it is her job to collect all the sound, because without her we wouldn’t know if things were new or old. Apparently every sound has its own shape in this book. It was a lot to take in, in these chapters because it didn’t seem very real at all. How would you feel if found out that everything was different, and not what if appeared to be?

Day 2, Chapter 5-8 of Phantom Tollbooth

I have finally read the next 4 chapters, pages 58-100, of The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Chapter five starts off with Officer Shrift taking Milo and Tock to prison for messing up the words. They go down many stairs and through a lot of doors until they get to the dungeon. The Officers says, "There will also be a small additional penalty of six million years in prison. Casse closed,"(p63)they will be there for six million years! They meet the which people think is actually a witch. She used to choose which words were to be used and which not to be used until she was locked up. In the next chapter, she tells a story about the two princesses Rhyme and Reason. They broke up every argument until the king of Dictionopolois and Digitopolis wanted to know which city was better. They said they were equal and banned from the area. Then the which tells them they can just leave because the officer only likes to put people in jail and doesn’t care when they leave. They go to the royal banquet, where Milo eats his own words. Milo tells the kings that he wants to bring the princesses back so he can then free the which. Milo develops a lot in these chapters. He wants to learn more so he doesn’t get into trouble. I think he has a long journey ahead of him. I wonder what other cities he is going to come across. How does he get out, and back into his own world? How would you feel if you got to go to a different world?

Day 1, first 4 chapters of Phantom Tollbooth

I have read the first four chapters, pages 9-57, of The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It has very unique characters, theme, and symbols. The main character in this book is a boy named Milo. He stumbles upon a genuine turnpike tollbooth in his house. This happens to be a magical tollbooth that takes him to a parallel universe which I think is kind of weird. He first goes to expectations, where he is offered information, predictions, and advice. He meets the whether man, not to be confused with the weather man, who helps chose the right direction. On his journey, he meets the watchdog in the Doldrums. He accidentally went the wrong way because he stopped thinking. The watchdog was half clock, and he explained that “once there was no time at all, and people found it very inconvenient. They never knew whether they were eating lunch or dinner, and they were always missing trains” (p43). Time is very important in this book. When Milo goes to Dictionopolis, people are buying and selling words and letters. I think it is a bad idea to put a price on words, because anyone can say whatever they want. Milo isn’t very good choosing what to do. He always wants to do the opposite of what he is doing. I think he will learn to value time more by the end of this book. What would you do if you stumbled into a parallel universe? How would you fell, would you tell people about it?