Reading Response: The Phantom Tollbooth

After Reading Phatom Tollbooth by Norton Juster for the first time, i found it delightfully funny, just as much as I found it interesting. Its detail and cleverness captured me to sink more and more into the story every time I opened the book. I found it hard to stop and write post-its because once I entered The Land of Beyond, I could not leave it. However, I did have ideas flowing through my head on almost every page! An idea that I found myself tracking the most frequently in the book is how the author chose his words.  For example, on page 16 as Milo is just recently entering this new world, to describe Milo's surroundings, Norton Juster writes beautifully, The flowers shone as if they had been cleaned and polished. Descriptions like these can show you exactly what Norton Juster wants you to see this world as. To sink you even more into the story, Norton Juster places things interestingly. He places them in a way that makes you stop and think for a second. Some examples of when he does this is in Dictionopolis, and everyone "eats their words" or a halfbakery for "half baked ideas".  An example how he places things, but show a deeper meaning than a halfbakery, is the reason he called Rhyme and Reason...well, Rhyme and Reason! As Ms.Robbins mentioned, Rhyme can mean poetry or love, and Reason can mean knowledge, and if these two things are not in The Land of Beyond, than nothing can go right!  So,  Milo sets on a  journey to save The Land of Beyond, and my boredom.