Final Appreciation

      In the eighth grade when  my group was assigned to read The Phantom Tollbooth, that was the first time that I had ever read the book. The assignment was to read the book and annotate throughout the whole book. That was so that we could understand the deeper meanings and ideas of the book. I liked the book and the authors veiws on the things he wrote about. And that is the kind of books that readers like, ones that they can connect their lives to and things they can think about throughout the book.
       One thing that I would have definitely done if I had had the chance, was to go back to a time before the book was assigned and read it.

      The book is about this boy named Milo, who thinks that there is nothing to life and there is nothing exciting in life at all. Then one day a mysterious package arrives and it is a Phantom Tollbooth. He goes into the Tollbooth an at first he doesn't know what he's doing or exactly what he is looking for. But after a while he finds people in the different worlds of the book like, Dictionopolis, Digitopolis, and he finds out that they are all in desperate need to get back Rhyme and Reason, the two peacemaking princesses. As he goes through these lands he finds out all kinds of different things, and sees how different people have way different points of views on things. Really he foun out a lot about the stuff that he didn't think was important, and saw how just the slightest things are in important.
      I think this book leapt out at me when I first read it because first, I didn't have a lot of group books and seond the language and views of theis book is so unique and cool that it makes the book cool.
      Phantom Tollbooth is a mixture of a lot of genres like, fantasy, fiction, science fiction, sort of fairytale, and I think the book grew on me so much because I like all of those genres except for fairytale. I think that Norton Juster is a really talented writer for not only being able to incorporate all of those genres into the book and make it work so well, but also to put his veiws into the book while doing all of that. The book is also like a childrens book in chapters and I think that its really cool that he could make the book have an impact on little kids, teenagers, and adults.

      I think that Norton Juster wanted to tell people something when he wrote this book. Actually a lot things. One of them is displayed in the beginning of the book and the at the end of the book. At first Milo doesn't think that there is anything in the world that is interesting and nothing holds his attention, but after he goes through his adventure/ journey through the worlds of the phantom tollbooth he learns that all things or words I should say are important and you should pay attention to them. That was one thing he is saying in his book. And that idea connects to other big ideas and they kind of branch off of that.

      In this book about words and life and views and just everything Norton Juster put a lot in it. And can't stress enough on his unique ways of exploring words and how to use them , and just how valuable they are. I mean as I said before this book is for everyone who can read and up, it doesn't really matter how old you are you can still enjoy the book eveytime you read it.