The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth was published in 1961 by Random House and was written by Norton Juster, an architect by training, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer. Juster wrote it while he was supposed to be working on a book about urban planning, and the puns and logical jokes came from the same interest in systems that produced his other work. The book has never been out of print, and its reputation rests on the fact that the jokes are genuinely about language and mathematics rather than being decoration for a quest.

Milo's journey is a tour of a curriculum disguised as an adventure. The Doldrums, the Whether Man, the watchdog named Tock and the marketplace where words are sold by the letter are all devices for teaching a child to pay attention, and Juster keeps the arithmetic and the etymology accurate enough that adults get the joke too. The conflict is small and philosophical: the two kings of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis refuse to agree which is more important, and the princesses were banished while the argument was decided.

The novel was adapted into a film in 1970 and, much later, into a stage musical, and it is a fixture of American primary-school reading lists. It also has an unusually adult following, for the obvious reason that its puns are not written down for children. It is a standalone, and it is one of the few fantasy novels for children in which nothing is at stake except the main character's ability to enjoy being alive.