“The Phantom Tollbooth”

“If I had to choose between reading this entire book or eating it…I’d ask whether I can prepare the pages in a way of my choosing. I think you could fold a book into some pulled pork and probably be okay. Maybe chili? And even if it was just straight up eating, I think I’d get through it faster with my mouth than my eyes.

This is painful to read. Like REALLY painful. Everything in it is so clever that it’s a little gross. It’s so cute. Like wouldn’t it be funny if a watchdog was a dog with a watch embedded in it? And not in a Cronenburg way, in like a cute way? And then EVERYTHING in the book works that way. It’s like Milo traveled to the land of Dad Jokes and instead of being a struggle for survival, it’s just a wacky experience. In a real road trip through the land of Dad Jokes, you’d spend all your time trying to get that little go-kart up to speed so you could throw yourself out and die, bludgeoned by literal “bumps in the road,” or maybe you could find a “fork in the road” and stab your eyes out.

This might be an adult critiquing a book for which he’s not the audience, but I dunno. I think this book is one of those books that adults like way more than kids. Like Fantasia or something.

Anyway, skip this one unless you have special goggles for safety. I need to see my eye doctor because my eyes were rolling so hard. “