The Phantom Tollbooth

Written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, The Phantom Tollbooth (1961, Knopf) is a children's book, a modern-day fairy tale full of wordplay.

Plot outline

Milo, a young boy bored with school and just about everything else, is sent by the titular Phantom Tollbooth to the Lands Beyond. Milo discovers that the Kingdom of Wisdom has fallen into disarray because of a feud between King Azaz the Unabridged of Dictionopolis, who considers words the apex of education, and his brother the Mathemagician, monarch of Digitopolis, a monomaniacal supporter of numbers.

Related Topics:
Words - Numbers

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Because of the ongoing words vs. numbers feud, the Princesses of Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason have been banished from the kingdom into the Mountains of Ignorance. Milo, with the help of two companions -- the steadfast watchdog Tock and the blustering Humbug -- must reunite words and numbers by returning the princesses to the kingdom.

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As he travels throughout the Lands Beyond, Milo meets a number of characters. Each of them represents a particular branch of knowledge or point of view. Most of them give Milo something new to think about and a gift that comes in handy later on his quest.

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Milo's quest concludes when he rescues the exiled princesses from the Castle in the Air and escapes from the Foothills of Ignorance. He and the rest of the kingdom realize that words and numbers are equally important subjects of learning. And Milo himself realizes that learning is not a waste of time—in fact, it's a joy.

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As Milo prepares to return home, Azaz and the Mathemagician seem to be renewing their quarrel.

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