I haven’t read The Phantom Tollbooth since they had us read it in sixth grade. Like A Wrinkle in Time, it’s an elementary school teacher’s idea of science fiction.
I didn’t know the book’s origin:
Architect Norton Juster was living in his hometown of Brooklyn, after three years in the Navy. In June 1960, he gained a $5,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to write a children’s book about cities. Juster argued that the young baby boomers would soon have responsibility for the cities, and many lived in the suburbs and did not know them. In his proposal, he said he wanted “to stimulate and heighten perception — to help children notice and appreciate the visual world around them — to help excite them and shape their interest in an environment they will eventually reshape.” Beginning with great enthusiasm, he ground to a halt with too many notes and too little progress. He took a weekend break with friends at Fire Island, and came back determined to put aside the cities book and seek inspiration in another writing project.
[…]
Juster shared his house in Brooklyn Heights with cartoonist Jules Feiffer whose bedroom was immediately below, and who could hear him pacing in the night. Feiffer was surprised to learn that his friend’s insomnia was not caused by the cities book, but by a book about a boy. Juster showed Feiffer the draft to date and, unbidden, the artist began sketching illustrations. Feiffer knew Judy Sheftel, who put deals together in the publishing trade and was his future bride. Sheftel got Jason Epstein, an innovative editor at Random House with a deep appreciation for children’s literature, to agree to review the manuscript.
David Epstein thinks about Oliver Burkeman‘s advice (in Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals) to “consolidate your caring” whenever he reads The Phantom Tollbooth to his son:
There is a character in the book, dressed like a census taker, called the Senses Taker. He eagerly helps people “find what they’re not looking for,” and in so doing diverts them from their priorities and wastes their limited time. The Senses Taker, I’m sure, would love social media.
They made it into a movie, by the way: