The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Recently Answered Questions

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  Why is it fitting that Milo's journey started with the Land of Expectations?
  It is fitting that the first place Milo goes to is the Land of Expectations because Milo's standards are so high that nothing meets his expectations. Everything feels like a waste of time. In the...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  Explain how the writer humorously emphasizes the importance of using the correct words in the right order.
  In Chapter 4, while Milo and Tock, the dog, are wandering around the market, they encounter the Spelling Bee and the Humbug. These two creatures argue over the importance of education overall and...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  In The Phantom Tollbooth, why does the watchman finally decide to let Milo and Tock into Dictionopilis?
  It's market day in Dictionopilis, but the guard doesn't want to allow Milo and Tock to come inside. The guard asks them why they want to come to the city, and neither of them can think of a good...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  What is dictionopolis?
  Dictionopolis is the name of the fantastic city visited by our hero Milo in the first several chapters of The Phantom Tollbooth, written by Norton Juster (with awesome illustrations by Jules...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  In The Phantom Tollbooth, what does King Azaz and the mathmagician tell Milo after he returns?
  In The Phantom Tollbooth, Azaz is king of Dictionopolis and the Mathemagician, his brother, is the ruler of Digitopolis; they have never agreed on anything since the two princesses, Rhyme and...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  What is unusual about Tock in The Phantom Tollbooth?
  The most unusual thing about Tock the bio-mechanical watchdog is that he can only make a ticking sound. This is not how things were supposed to turn out. When Tock's parents gave birth to him, they...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  What did Milo tell Tock that he wanted to do if they ever got out of prison?
  When the Spelling Bee and Humbug have an altercation in the marketplace, scrambled words are lying everywhere. The policeman holds Milo and Tock responsible for a large number of infractions,...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  What kind of tortous tasks does the terrible Trivium give Milo, Tock, and the Humbug? Why do you think trivil tasks are so terrible?   What kind of torturous tasks does the Terrible Trivium give...
  The Terrible Trivium's job was to so occupy people's time that they no longer had time to do anything important. One character had to dig a hole in a cliff using a needle. Another had to move each...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  Describe the Clock's attitude about time.
  The Clock is a Watchdog whose name is Tock. His job is to make sure that nobody wastes time. The Lethargarians consider him a very unpleasant character because all they do is waste time. In the...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  What did Milo think was the greatest waste of time? Why?
  Milo is bored by pretty much everything in life. He always wishes he were somewhere else. When he is indoors, he wants to be outside, and when he is outdoors, he wants to go back in. Milo does not...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  Why did Milo recieve an unusual package?
  In The Phantom Tollbooth, the main character is a young boy by the name of Milo. Milo's perennially bored and doesn't find anything in life remotely interesting. He especially hates learning; he...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  In The Phantom Tollbooth, what does Milo discover when King Azaz calls for his guests to each give a speech?
  Because of the absurdist nature of the worlds that Milo visits in The Phantom Tollbooth, he is unprepared for the literal nature of Dictionopolis, ruled by King Azaz. At a banquet, King Azaz calls...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  What was the name of the soup called that made Milo hungry in Digitoplis?
  At the beginning of chapter 15, Milo, Tock, and the Humbug have arrived in Digitopolis through the help of the Dodecahedron. They find themselves eating a most peculiar meal with the number miners...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  In The Phantom Tollbooth,was it right for Milo to hide that a week had gone by?  
  Milo FEELS like he has been gone several weeks. Remember that this is a fantasy, and time can be manipulated. The last chapter tells us that Milo is suddenly concerned that people may be worried...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  What is the difference between witch and Which in The Phantom Tollbooth?
  In the Phantom Tollbooth, the Not-so-Wicked Which is a character also known as Faintly Macabre or Aunt Faintly. When Milo is falsely accused and arrested by Officer Shrift, he is warned about the...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  After reading the entire novel The Phantom Tollbooth, what do you think was Milo's problem in the beginning? Give evidence to support your answer.  
  Milo, like many smart children, is bored in school. He does not see the point in learning things: he thinks that a lot of what he is being taught is obvious—such as "subtracting turnips from...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  What does the Spelling Bee do with the words he says?
  In the fantasy novel The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, the main character is a boy named Milo who believes that life is boring and learning is pointless. One day, a tollbooth appears in his...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  Provide a summary of chapter 5.
  There is confusion in the word market following a fight between the Spelling Bee and the Humbug that has resulted in the latter tripping into a stall, thereby knocking to the ground all the...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  Who are the characters in The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster?
  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster is a children's novel written in 1961. It begins with Milo, the young protagonist, spotting a mysterious package. When he opens it, he finds instructions for...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  In The Phantom Tollboth, why does Faintly Macabre only have punctuation marks left to eat?
  Poor Faintly was cast into the dungeon after causing disaster in Dictionopolis in her job as Official Which. Since her job was to help people choose which words to use, she took her job quite...

  2 Educator Answers

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  How is Faintly Macrebre's story an allegory?
  An allegory is when one or more characters in a story represent not only themselves, but something beyond themselves. For instance, Tock, Milo's dog, is an allegory. He is Milo's dog on the...

  1 Educator Answer

• The Phantom Tollbooth
  Who was the king of Dictionopolis?
  Azaz the Unabridged was king of Dictionopolis (Azaz = a to z, like the letters in the alphabet, or entries in a dictionary).

  1 Educator Answer