Enriched by Jules Feiffer’s splendid illustrations, the wit, wisdom, and wordplay of Norton Juster’s offbeat fantasy are as beguiling as ever. His website is marklardas.With almost 4 million copies sold more than 50 years after its original publication, generations of readers have now journeyed with Milo to the Lands Beyond in this beloved classic. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, Texas. “The Phantom Tollbooth,” by Norton Juster, Random House 35th ed., 1989. As it is today, it was also threatened by the quarrels of those charged with preserving wisdom. Juster presented a world where the realm of knowledge was threatened by the demons of ignorance. Regardless, it’s worth rereading or reading this year as an adult. You may have read “The Phantom Tollbooth” as a child. The book is an allegory that can be read on many levels. It’s replete with puns, word plays, and double meanings.

“The Phantom Tollbooth” is seemingly a children’s book, but viewing it as only a children’s book is dismissive. Readers, like Milo at the book’s end, realize another visit would have been superfluous. Before freeing the princesses, he meets the Which, Faintly Macabre (in charge of using words wisely), and encounters the symphony of light and battles the demons of ignorance. He has to get beyond Expectations and escape the Doldrums. He is aided by Tock (a watchdog who ticks) and the Humbug. Milo encounters, is assisted by, and is opposed by fantastic characters.

Without them, there is neither rhyme nor reason. Milo soon assumes a quest, rescuing the Princesses of Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason, exiled by their uncles, Azaz and the Mathemagician. The Mathemagician is the Ruler of Digitopolis, the realm of numbers. Azaz the Unabridged is king of Dictiononopolis, the realm of words. The Kingdom of Wisdom has split into competing kingdoms run by the first king’s sons. The Lands Beyond prove to be the Realm of Knowledge. He is traveling on an unfamiliar country highway. Once through the booth, he discovers he’s no longer in his room. Milo, with nothing better to do, builds the tollbooth and drives a long-unused electric car among his toys through it. It contains a tollbooth kit, a map to the Lands Beyond, and coins for the trip. One day he comes home to find a surprise package. For Milo, everything seemed a waste of time. Milo, a child, never knew what to do with himself.

It appeared in 1961 and has been in print ever since. “The Phantom Tollbooth” was Juster’s best-known book. Despite an impressive career as an architect, he is best known as an author. He was an architect, as well as an author in his spare time.

The tollbooth phantom