Reddit reviews The Phantom Tollbooth
We found 20 Reddit comments about The Phantom Tollbooth. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
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Reddit reviews The Phantom TollboothWe found 20 Reddit comments about The Phantom Tollbooth. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I don't know a lot of titles for the youngest ages, though the Junie B. Jones and Magic Treehouse books are favorites of my mother's elementary-aged students. Speaking of magic, you can't go wrong with The Magic Schoolbus. Oh! And Where the Wild Things Are.
As suggested by /u/jpop23mn, the Berenstein Bears are great books for young readers (I loved them so much as a kid), and Dr. Seuss is classic.
For middle-schoolers, I recall enjoying Maniac Magee (though I don't recall much about it), lots of Bruce Coville's monster books, the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, and one of my favorites, The Phantom Tollbooth. My sister enjoyed the Warriors series (and still reads them now as a college student). Then there's classics like Where the Red Fern Grows and Bridge to Terabithia, though those books cover some difficult subject matter (death).
Ghost stories are much beloved, and if you can find folklore and fable specific to various cultures, you can learn about other cultures while enjoying a good story!
Some other fantastic books to have around are The Daring Book for Girls and The Dangerous Book for Boys, both of which teach all kinds of fantastic information and skills while also being entertaining. I especially urge you to get the Daring Book for Girls if you have a daughter, because it not only teaches useful skills like changing tires and woodworking, but it also teaches about strong, independent, successful women through history. It promotes independence, self-esteem and self-confidence, which (in my opinion) are vital to any young person's upbringing, but especially women, since so much of the media and society seems bent on making women insecure, dependent and subservient. (Please excuse my politics.)
The Chronicles of Narnia are fantastic, if you don't mind that they're a religious allegory. When I was a kid, I read them for fun, and didn't give a damn about the religious aspect. (I'm agnostic.) Another good series is the Dark Materials series, though some parents avoid it because of Pullman's anti-religious sentiments. Again, I didn't care about that, I just enjoyed a good story.
Hopefully, with a big enough selection of books, your kids will be able to choose their own books by high school. But it's still nice to keep around some young adult and adult novels for the kids to explore. The Dragonlance novels are fantasy novels set in a D&D-inspired world, but this setting has more of a chivalric, idealistic mood, which is good for young adult readers as well as adults. You've also got the Harry Potter series, which is kind of a given...
The challenge is finding adult novels that are appropriate for your kids. If you are trying to avoid exposing your children to certain ideas before a certain age, then you'll have to personally read and consider each book before you put it on their shelf. If you're the kind of parent who allows their kid to read what they want to read, doing your best to answer their questions and put the stories into context, then it's a little easier. If your kid reads Jurassic Park, they're going to be exposed to an awful lot of violence, but they're also going to learn some fascinating scientific information as well. Crichton's books are science-fiction with a strong scientific background, so they're educational as well as thrilling, but they've got adult themes that might be better for more mature readers. (That being said, I was reading them at a young age.)
I hope this is a decent start. There are lots of good lists online, too. I'd suggest checking out GoodReads and various Amazon lists. Just remember that it's up to you to choose what you want your kids to be exposed to.
Edit: As a male, I have a distinct lack of experience with books aimed at young females. I would like to think that a good book can be enjoyed by boys and girls alike, but some books have more of a gender-focus than others.
Alright, kid. You're 12. You like to read. Good work. It's useful for exploring new interests. A few recommendations for life in book form:
Yoga for Dummies
Chinese: Crash Course
A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Phantom Tollbooth
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
Case Closed, Vol. 1
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Those should get you started on an introspective teenagehood. If any of those strike your interests, let me know and I'll do a little digital dumpster diving.
YA lit is my favourite genre, and i remember being that age and being bored with what the school had us read.
Ideas for you: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Dealing with Dragons series by Patricia C. Wrede (anything by her, actually, but that's where I'd start)
I'll second the Redwall books, there are a BUNCH!
On a slightly different topic, 9 was the age I started reading Dorothy Gilman (specifically, Caravan and Incident at Badamya)and Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody books. If she is a sophistocated reader, they are pretty awesome mystery/exotic books with light romance but nothing narsty.
I myself have just spent my summer re-reading Tamora Pierce's Tortall books for the heck of it, and those are super awesome, if she hasn't read them already. Why don't you have her look over our suggestions, haha?
RE: "the Lotus Sutra is supreme" - in my decades of experience within SGI, this concept was used to assure the members that they didn't need to pay attention to any other sutras, teachings, or other sects of Buddhism. Nichiren was poisonous in his condemnation of all the other schools of Buddhism, and "the Lotus Sutra is supreme" is used, in practice, to defend Nichiren's extremely un-Buddhist behavior. It was for everyone's own good, you see, that Nichiren attacked all the other sects of Buddhism and implored the government to kill them all, because "the Lotus Sutra is supreme" and those other sects, by their very existence, were "attacking" the supreme Lotus Sutra!
There's no concept of "live and let live" for Nichiren.
This portion is a fundamental and serious departure from Buddhism qua Buddhism:
>Its key message is that Buddhahood--a condition of absolute happiness, freedom from fear and from all illusions--is inherent in all life. The development of this inner life state enables all people to overcome their problems and live a fulfilled and active life, fully engaged with others and with society. Rather than stressing impermanence and the consequent need to eliminate earthly desires and attachments, the Lotus Sutra asserts the ultimate reality of the Buddha nature inherent in all life.
Because it does not stress the elimination of attachments and delusions, according to the rules of Buddhism, it can't lead people to enlightenment. According to the rules of Buddhism, much suffering arises from the delusion that there are fixed identities, a "self" that separates one from everything else. Personally, I found that whole "chant for whatever you want" concept to be pernicious, as it only served to strengthen my desires and leave me in a state of...Say, did you ever read that tween book, "The Phantom Tollbooth"?
I read it years ago. One of the only details I remember is that, similar to the Wizard of Oz, the protagonist passes through different places and meets people doing strange things. In the one tableau, he meets a group of people who are ravenously eating soup. It's a soup that, for every bite you eat, you become that much MORE hungry. That's how chanting for stuff that didn't come to pass (and even stuff that DID turn out as I wanted) worked for me. I developed a wrongheaded view of reality that I could pull strings and direct things by chanting. This sounds borderline mentally ill, doesn't it? Yet that's the effect of the whole "bragging about benefits at meetings" and "earthly desires are enlightenment" and "chant for whatever you want" and "this practice works."
Given both like art, would a low-end drawing tablet be in the cards?
For Rylee, maybe an art kit composed of the following: Tachikawa nibs and holders and ink, or a finetipped pen set Deleter manga paper, and a grown up sketchbook a la trendy Moleskine or Pentalic or classic art student hardcovers like so. As she develops as an artist she'll learn more whether she likes different sizes, thicker or thinner paper, or toned paper. Maybe throw in a few making of books from her favorite series (like IDK this one for Avatar the Last Airbender or this one for Spirited Away.) Getting a good making of book for a movie or animated film can be life changing. For me, even though I read it years after Brother Bear came out, this was an enlightening read about the movie making process and has some seriously gorgeous art. I haven't read the one for Moana yet so I have no idea whether it leans more toward text (like the making of Hunchback of Notre Dame did...so very little art in that book) or pictures, but it's more recent than Brother Bear. And yes, most of us artists have these books on our shelves, albeit with different movies/series depending on taste. Some of the Marvel movies have excellent making of books too. ;)
I'd recommend some drawing books, but the ones I know all have nudity in them and I don't know how you'd feel about that. I'd caution against 'how to draw manga' books as a general rule, but I owned a few and some art very, very good at teaching how to direct the eye for storytelling.
For your younger, I'd suggest many of the same things, except maybe not the nibs and ink because sharp and messy. If you get either of them colored art supplies, I'd either make sure they get the exact same set of markers or colored pencils, or get one markers, the other colored pencils. It can be rough sharing an interest with a sibling. And maybe some Sideways Math from Wayside School (I'd also suggest all three Wayside School books, they're brain bendy in a good way). Another brain tickling book (for me it was, anyway) was the Phantom Tollbooth. Maybe a how to draw horses book. A making of book or two about movies she liked - Frozen, maybe? IDK. Maybe a Goldiblox set to get her engineer brain in gear. Oh! I forgot about Spirit, the animated horse movie no one remembers.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
SOLVED SOLVED SOLVED
The Phantom Tollbooth
you can see the book cover here
No idea why I thought there were wilting clocks, but I got the boy and the dog right! Strange how memory works.
For fuckit_sowhat, who has plenty of time
The phantom toll booth
There's actually a story about somebody meeting a decimal child in this nonfiction book.
Two books that teach critical thinking to that age group
The Number Devil
The Phantom Toll Booth
LittleBits looks fun as well. My daughter and I got a lot of millage out of Lego Mindstorms.
Awesomeness!! I love it! Here it is on Amazon :)
Sorry had to edit. Sent you to study guide instead LOL
This shit right here, son
While I am shocked that you have never heard of this great novel, it doesn't surprise me. As a 22 yr old educated in Atlanta, GA, the only reason I developed any sort of literary knowledge was through older friends from other countries and/or who simply were around when the American education system cared about its patrons. On a lighter note, have you ever heard of this book?
http://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Tollbooth-Norton-Juster/dp/0394820371
DO IT
The Phantom Tollbooth.
It's amazing.
You could see if amazon.jp has the books you're looking for in English. Their delivery is super fast and the shipping is not that expensive, I used them a lot when I was living in Japan. If they live in the Tokyo area, maybe you could see if someone from the military base there (Yokota) would be willing to forward the books for you, then you would only be paying US->US shipping and could use media mail.
The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas. Amazon.jp
The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan. Amazon.jp
Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Amazon.jp
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. Amazon.jp
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Amazon.jp
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Amazon.jp
Among the Hidden by Margaret Haddix, Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull, Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen, The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi.
That appears to be some kind of study guide. This is more the book I'm familiar seeing: https://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Tollbooth-Norton-Juster/dp/0394820371/ref=pd_sbs_14_2/140-3769656-6565623?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0394820371&pd_rd_r=6157a932-2a3c-11e9-8cf5-099d92ac0fc2&pd_rd_w=p7bHM&pd_rd_wg=3EgL8&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=X5MRW59AGMKAMZDRDJ97&psc=1&refRID=X5MRW59AGMKAMZDRDJ97
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But I'm not paying full price for it, lol. I frequent a couple local used book stores, I buy all my books from them. Half to support local small business, half to save money.
//This is a summation of several months of recent reading...it sounds like a lot, but it isn't as much as it sounds like.
Just finished reading The Phantom Toolbooth to my 5-year old for the 3rd time (first time was more to $spouse when the kid was still nursing, but I'm counting it anyway). It's an awesome book to read when you are a kid, and doubly-awesome to read aloud to a kid.
For me, I recently finished The Founding Fish by John McPhee (one of my favorite writers).
I just started reading Rust: The Longest War which seems good so far (similar in style to McPhee).
I've also recently read:
All as part of some sort of Amazon Prime Kindle deal. I can't really recommend any of them. The first two are formulaic in the extreme, and because everyone is the best supersoldier/pilot/captain/hacker ever, and there's no question they will "win," and I just didn't care. I couldn't finish the 3rd, although it wasn't bad; I just wanted to read something else. I honestly can't remember anything about the 4th, it was that bad. The last one (Columbus Day) didn't suck.
Also from Amazon:
Most of the Amazon Prime Kindle selections are the first of a series, and while I like a good series as much as the next guy, I'm not going to bother with any of them, except for Columbus Day and Meta. Maybe.
I mistakenly read Echopraxia for the second time, but it's good enough that I didn't mind. It has some pretty creepy parts, but I like what I've read of Peter Watts so far, and it's a fairly deep book in parts, so a second read wasn't a waste.
The local library has some Terry Prattchet as a digital loan, so I read one or two Discworld books too.
Anyone have any suggestions for a good biography of Eisenhower?
Green Eggs and Ham
I got this book for my cousin's son who is 4 and he loves it.
I really want this book! It was one of my favorites when I was a kid and I want to have a copy again because I miss it.
I also like [inexpensive].(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0394820371/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2PIVS4L8SLPH9&coliid=I1AW9G9Z4V5UZQ)
Thanks for the contest!