Readers Response: This story is filled with excitement and adventure. It is literally one of my favorite books of all time. It is a book that seems extremely random at first, but then you realize it is filled with witty puns that make it impossible to put down. For someone who is passionate about school but often struggles with finding a good book to keep my attention, The Phantom Tollbooth was perfect. It is a chapter book that contains sketches on every other page. This is perfect for those of us who have a difficult time staying focused. As a reader it made me want to find the joy of learning, much like Milo had to do as he took his adventures through the Land of Wisdom, the Doldrums, the Castle in the air, and even when he jumped to the island Conclusions.
Evaluator Response: The scholastic humor that is woven throughout this text is enough to make any reader laugh with excitement. Unfortunately there is a bit of complexity to the text that would lose the interest of those who are not passionate about learning and scholarly puns. The illustrations are simple enough to not be a distraction, but detailed enough to add to the story.
Teacher Response: This is the perfect book to invest a child in education. This book is filled with adventure and shows readers how Milo goes from finding no interest in learning to seeing the importance, power, and humor behind being educated. He would not have been able to complete his journey without using the skills that were taught to him in school. If there is a student struggling to find the importance of school and feels like things are boring there, this is the book for them.
Literacy Coach Response: The Lexile level on this book is 1000 which is perfect for grade level 7th graders. It is long enough for a student to enjoy over time but the chapters are short enough to keep the attention of students that have an attention deficit. There are a great deal of idioms throughout the text and would be great to use for a unit on figurative language. Below is a copy of a unit on figurative language that I found to be interesting. (It even lists all of the TN Common Core State Standards that are covered in the unit)
I love this book, too! In addition to its usefulness for the traditional ELA classroom, the text has tons of interdisciplinary connections that make it a great choice for project-based learning or integrating literacy into non-ELA subjects. For example, a math teacher can use the section when Milo visits Digitopolis to help build students' understanding of numeracy and the origins of modern math.
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