The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth

The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth
by Norton Juster
★★★★★

I grew up adoring this book. A bored young boy finds a tollbooth in his bedroom when he gets home from school. He then proceeds to travel to a faraway land and go on adventures that teach him lessons and challenge him to grow and mature. It’s a parable about the value of imagination and exploring the world around you. It’s also wonderfully funny and clever.

It taught me to appreciate words and the myriad of meanings that they can have, but also not to use them just to impress people. It taught me the value of a world with that holds math, science, English and art in equal measures. There is no balance without all of those things. The book provided constant reminders about the value of friendship and the importance of surrounding yourself with people who will improve you and not drag you down. It showed me that the true villains in life are self-doubt, idleness and things like that, not the monsters we normally picture. And on top of all of that, the book, so full of life lessons, is accessible to 10-year-olds. Somehow Juster slyly slide those things into the midst of a great story.


Reading my beautiful new Annotated edition was such a treat. Although I’d read and reread the book over the years, I knew very little about the story behind it. Juster was an architect, not an author, but he had a view of where children were headed and it wasn’t pretty. His message, encouraging kids to journey outside the walls of their home, both physically and mentally, is more important than ever in the age of video games and You Tube.

Leonard S. Marcus (a children’s literature scholar) compiled the annotated edition and it’s filled with fascinating trivia and behind-the-scenes tidbits. Jules Feiffer's illustrations, which are such an integral part of the story, are explained in detail, as is the books evolution. I particularly loved seeing all of the lists of possible characters and obstacles that Juster kept.

If you’ve never read the book, start with a regular copy, but if you’re already a devoted fan, the annotated copy is a delight!

"My goodness," thought Milo, "everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best."

"You must never feel badly about making mistakes, as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong than you do by being right for the wrong reasons."

Images from The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth