Above is a pic of my youngest daughter and me.
My Husband, My brother in Christ
One of the BEST read-a-louds I have ever read...
This is one of the most clever books I have ever read. Our family had great fun reading it every night. IT WAS SO HARD TO PUT DOWN. The kids would beg me not to stop reading!!!
(Don't let the name of this classic bother you. THis is truly a MUST-READ)
The Phantom Tollbooth
by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer
Milo has nothing much at all to do -- until he drives through the Phantom Tollbooth. Beyond it lies a strange land and an even stranger series of adventures. Accompanied by a watchdog named Tock and the ever-grumpy Humbug, Milo sets out on a quest for Rhyme and Reason, hoping to settle the war between words and numbers along the way. Now that he thinks about it, he's got plenty to keep him busy after all.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
"Well, if you can't laugh or think, what can you do?" asked Milo.
"Anything as long as it's nothing, and everything as long as it isn't anything," explained another. "There's lots to do; we have a very busy schedule-
"At 8 o'clock we get up, and then we spend
"From 8 to 9 daydreaming.
"From 9 to 9:30 we take our early midmorning nap.
"From 9:30 to 10:30 we dawdle and delay.
"From 10:30 to 11:30 we take our late early morning nap.
"From ll:00 to 12:00 we bide our time and then eat lunch.
"From l:00 to 2:00 we linger and loiter.
"From 2:00 to 2:30 we take our early afternoon nap.
"From 2:30 to 3:30 we put off for tomorrow what we could have done today.
"From 3:30 to 4:00 we take our early late afternoon nap.
"From 4:00 to 5:00 we loaf and lounge until dinner.
"From 6:00 to 7:00 we dillydally.
"From 7:00 to 8:00 we take our early evening nap, and then for an hour before we go to bed at 9:00 we waste time.
"As you can see, that leaves almost no time for brooding, lagging, plodding, or procrastinating, and if we stopped to think or laugh, we'd never get nothing done."
"You mean you'd never get anything done," corrected Milo.
"We don't want to get anything done," snapped another angrily; "we want to get nothing done, and we can do that without your help."
"You see," continued another in a more conciliatory tone, "it's really quite strenuous doing nothing all day, so once a week we take a holiday and go nowhere, which was just where we were going when you came along. Would you care to join us?"
"I might as well," thought Milo; "that's where I seem to be going anyway."
Five fun ideas to do with the kids as you read the book:
1. Build a model of the Tollbooth based on the description in chapter 1. It may be a single model or part of a diorama.
2. Draw a map showing Milo's journey and the different places he visited. Label it clearly. Places to include: Expectations; The Doldrums; Dictionopolis; Old City of Wisdom; Forest of Sight; Valley of Sound; Conclusions; Digitopolis; Sea of Knowledge; Castle in the Air; Mountains of Ignorance. Script
3. At the banquet in Dictionopolis the guests had to make a speech and "eat their own words". I have alphabet cookie cutters to make cookie words that the kids would then eat. Use Publisher to present a "tasty speech".
4. The Threadbare Excuse spends his time making up excuses for not doing things or doing the wrong thing. Make a humorous illustrated booklet full of excuses for not doing your schoolwork.
5. The monsters who live in the Mountains of Ignorance are all creatures who demonstrate some form of ignorant and unpleasant behaviour and their names help describe them. Invent 5 more monsters of Ignorance, name them and describe their bad habits. Draw a picture of each one.
Comments
Based on your excerpt, I got this book from the library. Everyone in my family read it, and cracked up. I laughed out loud pretty often, but never as loud as when I read about the excerpt.
Posted by: Lynn | June 16, 2006 04:50 PM
Hey Lynn,
I like your e-mail address. (only I get to see it... but it's a good one)
Yes, this book brought much laughter in our home. Feel free to recommend any that you feel are good ones.
Lisa
Posted by: 4ever4given | June 16, 2006 05:49 PM