The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Illustrated in black-and-white. This ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting in his room. Joining forces with a watchdog named Tock, Milo drives through the tollbooth's gates and begins a memorable journey. He meets such characters as the foolish, yet lovable Humbug, the Mathemagician, and the not-so-wicked "Which," Faintly Macabre, who gives Milo the "impossible" mission of returning two princesses to the Kingdom of Wisdom.

First line:
There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself--not just sometimes, but always."


If you like words and playing on words, this is the book for you! Funny, clever, sensitive and never dull, THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH is a great read. I laughed out loud several times, had to reread a few lines and paragraphs to catch the idea and enjoyed the story to the very end. 
Excellent book for elementary kids.


Liked: 
Pretty much everything
Drawings


Disliked:
Some longer passages
I admit I skimmed a few times


Rating: G


4 STARS

25% test (p.64):
Page 64 is an illustrated page. I do like this line from the next page:
"You can get in a lot of trouble mixing up words or just not knowing how to spell them."