A book that I highly recommend and use every year is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
Written in 1961, it is still one of the favorites of my third graders. The main character, Milo, receives a mysterious tollbooth. Milo is a boy who is not happy where he is, has no curiosity, and is always bored. When he drives through the tollbooth in his toy car, he finds himself in a mysterious world and having a mysterious quest. He must reunite King Azaz of Dictionoplois with The Mathmagician of Digitopolis, who are locked in a feud over which is more important...words or numbers.
This book has plays on words, academic vocabulary, and excellent description, which makes it a terrific literary tool. However, and I think more importantly, it has a great message. At the end of his journey, Milo is informed that what he accomplished was an impossible task. He is told that what you can do is usually just a matter of what you will do. This has become my classroom motto.
For all of those quotation gatherers out there...this is a book you'll love to teach.
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ReplyDeleteThis was one of those books I remember always seeing in the library and at the bookstore as a kid, but I never got around to reading it. The blue cover always caught my eye. I am excited you have suggested it so I can enjoy it as an adult now. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI have never read this either. How does someone receive a tollbooth? Why would someone want a tollbooth? I'd like to have these questions answered, so maybe I'd better get this book. It sounds like a good read aloud for my son.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds as though it has so many teaching ideas that could stem from reading it. I think it would be wonderful to have a tollbooth in your classroom where students could write about their very own tollbooth adventures.
ReplyDeleteThis book was in play form in the back of the 6th grade text book I used to teach from. I remember seeing a student randomly reading it once and the student commenting that it was really good and asking if we could read it in class. I regret that because of curriculum calendars, I never used it. It was probably one of the very few times I had a student suggest we read anything and I didn't capitalize on it:(
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