The Life and Times of the Watters Family

reading to the boys

I really love reading to the boys. Most recently, I have been reading The Phantom Tollbooth to Sean and Caleb. This is a great book to read aloud. It is full of rich language and elaborate descriptions. I have appreciated the meaning and message the book subtly and artistically includes. Here’s an excerpt from what we read tonight. Milo (the main character) and Alec another boy just entered the city called “Reality”.

“Many years ago, on this very spot there was a beautiful city of fine houses and inviting spaces, and no one who ever lived here was ever in a hurry. The streets were full of wonderful things to see and the people would often stop and look at them.”

“Didn’t they have any place to go?” asked Milo.

“To be sure, ” continued Alec; “but, as you know, the most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that. Then one day someone discovered that if you walked as fast as possible and looked at nothing but your shoes you would arrive at your destination much more quickly. Soon everyone was doing it. They all rushed down the avenues and hurried along the boulevards seeing nothing of the wonders and beauties of their city as they went.”

Milo remembered the many times he’d done the very same thing; and, as hard as he tried, there were even things on his own street that he couldn’t remember.

“No one paid any attention to how things looked, and as they moved faster and faster everything grew uglier and dirtier, and as everything grew uglier and dirtier they moved faster and faster, and at last a very strange thing began to happen. Because nobody cared, the city slowly began to disappear. Day by day the buildings grew fainter and fainter, and the streets faded away, until at last it was entirely invisible. There was nothing to see at all.”

From The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

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