Illustrations by Jules Feiffer
A really smart children's book guaranteed to take you to Wordplay heaven as it gently satirizes the art of Rhetoric! After the always bored Milo receives a mysterious tollbooth, he drives through to the road of Expectation. He soon meets Humbug and dog Tock who become his companions to the Land of Wisdom. This land has had two conflicting cities, Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, in chaos after the loss of the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason. They are off to their rescue and the adventure of visiting such charming places as: the Islands of Conclusions, the Valley of Sound, Mountains of Ignorance and the Sea of Knowledge; meeting fantastic characters such as: the not-so-wicked Which, Chroma, Dr. Kakofonous A. Dischord, the awful Dyne, the Soundkeeper, the Dodecahedron, the Half Boy, the Whether Man, Alec Bings, the Gorgons of Hate and Malice, the Everpresent Wordsnatcher; and encountering the demons: the demon of Insincerity, the Overbearing Know-it-all, the Gross Exaggeration, the Threadbare Excuse, the Terrible Trivium, the Gelatinous Giant and the Ugly Dilemma. See what I mean?
'There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself -- not just sometimes but always.'(opening line)
"ONE GENUINE TURNPIKE TOLLBOOTH," it stated -- and then it went on:
EASILY ASSEMBLED AT HOME, AND FOR USE BY THOSE WHO NEVER TRAVELED IN LANDS BEYOND."(12)
'It shall be unlawful, illegal, and unethical to think, think of thinking, surmise, presume, reason, meditate, or speculate while in the Doldrums.'(24)
"Well," continued the watchdog impatiently, "since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking."(31)
'"I never knew words could be so confusing," Milo said to Tock as he bent down to scratch the dog's ear.
"Only when you use a lot to say a little," answered Tock.'(44)
"Of course not," replied Alec, sitting himself down on nothing. "It's only mine, and you certainly can't always look at things from someone else's Point of View. For instance, from here that looks like a bucket of water," he said pointing to a bucket of water; " but from an ant's point of view, it's a vast ocean, from an elephant's just a cool drink, and to a fish, of course, it's home. So, you see, the way you see things depends on a great deal on where you look at them from."(107-108)
"I know one thing for certain: it's much harder to tell whether you are lost than whether you were lost, for, on many occasions, where you're going is exactly where you are. On the other hand, you often find that where you've been is not at all where you should have gone, and, since it's much more difficult to find your way back from someplace you've never left, I suggest you go there immediately and then decide.'(114)
"Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn?" she inquired. "Or the quiet and calm just as the storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause in a roomful of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're all alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful, if you listen carefully.'(151-152)
"But I wouldn't worry too much about it, for you can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do.'(169-170)
"If you had high hopes, how would you know how high they were? And did you know that narrow escapes come in all different widths? Would you travel the whole wide world without ever knowing how wide it was? And how could you do anything at long last," he concluded, waving his arms over his head, "without knowing how long the last was? Why, numbers are the most beautiful and valuable things in the world."(177)
"I'm the demon of insincerity," he sobbed. "I don't mean what I say, I don't mean what I do, and I don't mean what I am. Most people who believe what I tell them go the wrong way, and stay there..."(217)
"I warned you; I warned you I was the Senses Taker," sneered the Senses Taker. "I help people find what they're not looking for, hear what they're not listening for, run after what they're not chasing, and smell what isn't even there. And, furthermore," he cackled, hopping around gleefully on his stubby legs, "I'll steal your sense of purpose, take your sense of duty, destroy your sense of proportion -- and, but for one thing, you'd be helpless yet."(230)
"You must never feel badly about making mistakes." explained Reason quietly, "as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons."(233)
'... so many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.'(247)
a Dell Yearling Book
255 pages
Book borrowed from JRMD
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge
No comments:
Post a Comment