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Andrea Pyros’ debut novel is My Year of Epic Rock. Andrea has worked as a magazine editor, celebrity interviewer, and cookie wrangler.

The Phantom Tollbooth is the story of Milo, a very bored boy who comes home one day to find a magical tollbooth in his room. When Milo drives his car through the tollbooth gate, he finds himself in the Lands Beyond, a country inhabited by living language in the forms of animals, magicians, royalty, mountains, [...]

I’m thrilled to be hosting Ursula Poznanski on The Pen Stroke today for a stop on her whirlwind Erebos Blog Tour. 

Welcome Ursula!

What inspired the world of Erebos?

On the one hand, I had watched some YouTube videos of current games and I had played myself (Diablo, for example). I wanted the “look” of the game to be recognizable and attractive to gamers. On the other hand, I had something very real to inspire me, something very crucial to the plot. This element needed to be hidden inside the game, so in a certain way it formed the world of Erebos, too.

How important was it that your characters be able to practice free will?

I wanted to give them the possibility to stop playing whenever they wished to—not without obeying the rules that are connected with backing out, of course. The game needs enthusiastic players, not forced ones.

How difficult was it for you to tow the line between the virtual world of Erebos and the real world of London?

That was pure fun, no difficulty at all. I loved switching between the worlds, accompanying Nick and Sarius by turns. I really loved to write everything that took place in London—I had a city map on my desk and Google Maps opened in my browser, so it almost felt like being there myself.

Why did you choose Greek mythology for the foundation of Erebos and its founding characters?

I was looking for a dark deity with an impressive name, so I came across Erebos. It would have been a terrible waste not to use all the cross connections that offered themselves, once I had found the “name of the game” and so I happily integrated them into the plot.

Were you ever hesitant to employ such incredibly dark imagery in Erebos?

No. I really felt that the game had to be dark. It had to have a threatening look and to be appealing and mysterious at the same time. Erebos doesn’t pretend to be an innocent amusement—it shows its spirit from the very beginning, but of course the players do not take that seriously.

A special thanks to Ursula for dropping by The Pen Stroke!

Erebos Blog Tour Schedule:

March 25: YA Bookshelf, www.yabookshelf.com

March 26: Bookosaur, www.thebookosaur.com

March 27: GreenBeanTeenQueen, www.gree

by Norton Juster   illustrated by G. Brian Karas Schwartz & Wade / Random House 2011   Moving to a new neighborhood is tough. How do you find and make new friends? One boy has an interesting solution...   It's move-in day, and there's little for a boy to do while his parents begin unloading boxes and setting up the house. Mom can see that he's upset, she knows that it's hard to be the new

Right now for our bedtime reading, my daughter and I are revisiting an old classic — The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (illustrated by Jules Feiffer), Yearling Books, 1961.   I encountered this novel when I was in grade five;  it was recommended to me by a friend.  I remembered reading it and loving it.  It’s a witty and clever book by halves, and I don’t think I ‘got’ everything in it at the time I read it, but following the adventures of this idle and bored schoolboy protagonist Milo “who didn’t know what to do with himself — not just sometimes, but always”  was compelling.   In reading it now with my daughter, I am enjoying the story again with so much more gusto — this time getting, of course, all the many puns and double entendres throughout the book.  My daughter is less enthusiastic.  As she puts it herself, “I like listening to it because it puts me to sleep.”   (Mind you, this fact alone makes it a worthy bedtime read for the parent!)  But while she dozes off, I often continue reading aloud for the sheer pleasure of the story which speaks to the book’s attractive charm and longevity.

The Phantom Tollbooth celebrated the 50th anniversary of its publication this year.   There’s a Youtube video I watched recently of Norton Juster and Jules Pfeiffer talking about the genesis of the book.   A commemorative annotated edition of the book is now available, and a  documentary film, The Phantom Tollbooth Turns 50, is currently being produced, set for release in 2012.   I didn’t discover all this information, until after I’d selected this book for our bedtime reading ritual, so I was quite surprised by the serendipity of my choice and hope that my daughter might remember this book fondly herself when she begins reading to her children in the future.  (If she doesn’t, Grandma certainly will!)

So I’m at a lovely Little Brown librarian preview earlier this week and the first special guest star of the day turns out to be none other than Daniel Handler a.k.a. Lemony Snicket.  A resident of San Francisco, I wasn’t sure why he was in town.  Turns out, he was on Rachel Maddow’s show talking about his recent Occupy Wall Street piece that had been making the internet rounds.  Maddow says that he’s a “cultural hero of mine” and then later that she is “dorking out” being in his presence.  The interview is great in and of itself, plus you get this fun bit at the start about what you do when the police have confiscated your generators.

Of course if I’d known he was in town I would have tried to hook him into saying hello at the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival festivities.  Hosted in my library I’ll be blogging about it rather soon.  It was rather epic, I have to say.  Everything from a children’s musical about the birth of the Newbery Award to kids singing the plot of The Westing Game to Katie Perry’s “Firework” (a song that seems to haunt Mr. Kennedy wherever he may go).  Of course we ran out of time so we never got to show this final video.  I present it to you now because it’s rather brilliant.  As Ira Glass imitations go, this has gotta be up there:

This next link is here only because Travis at 100 Scope Notes spotted it first.  According to Reuters, the Japanese have brought The Magic Tree House books to life on the screen.  Apparently Mary Pope Osborne has always resisted film adaptations but the filmmakers so wowed her that she gave them the rights.  The result pairs nicely with that recent Borrowers adaptation, also out of Japan:

In other news, Newbery Honor winner Kathi Appelt recently interviewed Caldecott Award winner Eric Rohmann about his latest hugely lauded Halloween tale Bone Dog.  Perhaps I should have posted this before Hal

Add these books to your collection: The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition and The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth

Reading Level: Ages 8-12

Video courtesy of RandomBooks: “2011 marks the 50th Anniversary of the beloved classic, The Phantom Tollbooth. Meet the book’s creators, Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer, and hear them discuss how this classic came to be.

Also with commentary from Leonard S. Marcus, children’s books critic and historian, and author of The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth.”

©2011 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

1. Judy Blume. How can I even begin to describe what it was like to be so close to THE Judy Blume? The woman was so gracious, so kind, so intelligent, and so very REAL. The first novel I think I ever read was Are You There God? It's me, Margaret. I remember that special feeling of being entirely wrapped up in Margaret's world. I loved it. I loved it so much that I never stopped reading and seeking new worlds with new characters. Hearing about Judy's process and journey was inspiring beyond belief. 
2. Norton Juster. The first fantasy book I ever read was The Phantom Tollbooth. It was also the first book I ever read more than once. I had the opportunity to tell Norton Juster that, to which he looked me dead in the face and replied, "Fantasy? That's my life." How can I not love him? How can I not love a book that's remained AMAZING after 50 years, and that my own son loves just as much as I did? I think I might have to go read it again...
3. Laurie Halse Anderson. Speak. She gave voice to difficult subject matter that may make some uncomfortable, but saves lives on a daily basis. At the conference, she taught me to embrace my creative need for self-expression, and to nurture the "seed" in my soul. 
4. Donna Jo Napoli. Her speech was possibly my favorite. And that's really saying something as I gave more standing ovations than I have in my life. It was titled: How Writing About Terrible Things Makes Your Reader a Better Person. And she spoke to not just those who need to see others who've gone through similar things, but to the sheltered who benefit from exposure to truths beyond their own. 
5. Libba Bray. I saved my favorite for last of course. My hero. Her speech was just as amazing as I hoped and so was she. Funny, intelligent, friendly, and talented. Libba - I would have voted you Prom Queen in high school. I'm just sayin'. She let us know that even the super stars go through rough times, and are plagued by self-doubt. 

Norton Juster wrote the classic Children's book "The Phantom Tollbooth,"




"The Dot and The Line,"




"The Odious Ogre,"




and "The Hello, Goodbye Window."




And I (and the other 1,341 people here) are eager to learn from the mind of the man who wrote the note on that famous tollbooth that read:

"RESULTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED, BUT IF NOT PERFECTLY SATISFIED, YOUR WASTED TIME WILL BE REFUNDED."

"Boredom is not an unmixed blessing. But you can learn a lot fighting your way out of it."

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By: Martha Brockenbrough, on 8/6/2011
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Inspiration, leonard marcus, Norton Juster, Add a tag

Leonard Marcus (left) and Norton Juster

Oh, THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH: Raise your hand if this is the book that turned you into a reader.

The children's book historian Leonard Marcus interviewed Norton Juster, the Tollbooth author, revealing Norton's interactions with spies, an incident where he impersonated a Canadian journalist to present a fake award to Jules Feiffer, and the apartment rental deal he once worked with an Austrian dentist. (Seriously. Not making any of this up.) 

Some highlights from their chat: 
Leonard kicked things off by asking Norton where he and illustrator Jules Feiffer met. At the time, Norton had a $77.10 monthly living allowance to live off the naval base. He found a place in Brooklyn Heights (rented from the aforementioned dentist). Jules lived on the third floor.

"Jules claims we both met when we were taking the garbage out," Norton said. "I claim I was taking garbage out and he was looking for something to eat."

Norton always planned to be an architect. His father was one, and Norton played with scraps and things from his father's office. This taught him to think visually, which has carried over to his writing. He visualizes things before he begins writing about them. "I think I'd write very much differently if I didn't have that visual background."

How did he write the Phantom Tollbooth? 
 He had a grant to do research on cities. He realized it wasn't what he wanted to do. He went on a vacation and started to write a two- or three-page story that started to become the Phantom Tollbooth.

"The best work I do, I do trying to avoid doing something else I don't want to do. Don't knock that. It's terrific motivation."

On how he works
Norton said he never had any clear idea what was going to happen with the Phantom Tollbooth. He wrote bits and pieces, not sequentially.

He happened on a technique he's used ever since.

"I would write long conversations with the characters that didn't end up in the book." But they helped him understand their relationship and what people were thinking. "I realized I wasn't making up this dialogue. I was just eavesdropping. It was just happening."

You can write a conversation between two characters from any point of view he says. It's a great exercise. "I can't write at all unless I know the characters. The plot isn't nearly as important as the people and what they mean to each other."

Norton is a list maker. He puts something on his list every day that he knows he'll be able to do. He also makes lists of words (which Leonard found in the collection of Norton's papers).

This actually happened
The copy editor of TOLLBOOTH edited out all of the word play, and the manuscript came back to him looking like someone had bled on it. "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry."

Where did Milo get his name? 
Norton had a scholarship to study in Liverpool ("pre-Beatles, which shows you how old I am"). He traveled regularly to Dublin, where one member of his group was the character actor Milo O'Shea. "I just fell in love with the name. He has no idea I used that name for Milo. That same year, there was a Milo character in CATCH 22. I still love the name."

1 Comments on What's the word? A conversation with Norton Juster, last added: 8/6/2011

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Pk Hrezo said, on 8/6/2011 1:09:00 PM

Wow! I'd have loved to been there for that. Phantom Tollbooth is an all around classic. I still love it and just read it to my 6 year old son a few months ago, who also loved it.

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12. Fusenews: Now with more Sprog

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By: Betsy Bird, on 6/15/2011
Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Neil Gaiman, Uncategorized, Lisa Yee, Adam Rex, Tomi Ungerer, Norton Juster, Werner Herzog, bonobos, Herve Tullet, Charise Harper, Twitter rumors, Add a tag

In brief . . .

Yeah. I thought it was an Onion headline too:  Werner Herzog reads potty-mouthed bedtime audiobook.  I think that’s overseas, though.  Here in the U.S. we got someone else.

That’s a good headline.  This one’s not bad either: Children’s author ejected from plane for bad language.  Strange thing is, it says the fellow in question (a New Yorker) has a book for kids due out this August.  Can’t find any evidence of this on Amazon, though.  Hmmmmm.  Thanks to Jennifer Schultz for the link.

• Author Lisa Yee recently came to town for BEA.  While here, she met with a veritable TON of folks, including myself.  For an image of me balancing a Peep on my once massive belly, her blog is the place to be.

• I love the Twin Cities, particularly when their schools offer fun free courses for kids on making their own books.  Thanks to Monica Edinger for the link!

• She’s not particularly well-known here in the States (she’s best associated with her book, The Gruffalo, and it’s recent Best Animated Short nomination at the last Oscars) but Julia Donaldson is now the official Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate in the U.K.

• Twitter rumor: Due to a recent exchange between Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex, it sure as heck sounds like Rex has illustrated a book by Gaiman with a target audience of 2-year-olds.  I am now officially a gossip columnist, am I not?

• Love the idea.  Bad Ideas for Self Promotion.  Particularly the one concerning celebrity endorsement.  Well played, Charise Harper.  Well played, indeed.

• I love me those Boogie Woogie kids.  Best blog of kids reviewing children’s books out there.  Now they’ve done review #100 and they want to accept nominations for their next review.  More info here.

• Eliot Schrefer is a member of my children’s writing group.  Right now he’s penning a really impressive YA novel about bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  So how does one research such a book?  Go there!  Eliot has a great blog up right now that is currently following him on his trip.

• I was intending to go this awesome event fo
  9 Comments on Fusenews: Now with more Sprog, last added: 6/19/2011
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  tanita said, on 6/16/2011 1:40:00 AM
  

  I love that table! It would be such a …disturbing little conversation starter.

  I looked all over to hear Herzog reading that silly book – no luck finding it yet. I really want to hear the angst in his cultured tones; somehow Jackson just sounds like he’s going to start announcing there are snakes…

  Wee Oiseau might be more impressed with the patterns in the book if she hadn’t already deciphered the patterns in her bouncy chair, and checked out the stripes on Mama Bird’s blouse…

  mhg said, on 6/16/2011 4:35:00 AM
  

  Those widdle teenie feet and head, too cute! Love the Toss and Snap on the bad promo blog!

  Jennifer Schultz said, on 6/16/2011 6:11:00 AM
  

  “I am now officially a gossip columnist, am I not?”

  Uh oh. Does this mean we’ll start seeing Blind Items?

  Your daughter’s name is lovely-saw it mentioned in the commnents on a previous post.

  Jennifer W. said, on 6/16/2011 6:19:00 AM
  

  We love Julia Donaldson at my library! I don’t think I’ve ever read the Gruffalo, bad me, but we really like What the Ladybug Heard and Fish who cried Wolf.

  Marie Rutkoski said, on 6/16/2011 7:08:00 AM
  

  That table doesn’t look child-friendly…at first I thought the polls of those axes were, in fact, bump guards to protect little heads from corners, but no!

  Sondy said, on 6/16/2011 8:47:00 AM
  

  Ohhh! She’s so sweet and tiny! Pictures! More pictures!

  Though the coffee table picture is slightly incongruous after the Sprog picture. NOT a piece of furniture you’d probably want in a home with a baby. I’m just saying.

  Meg said, on 6/16/2011 10:19:00 AM
  

  What did mothers do before the internet was around to validate their life choices?

  Elizabeth Bird said, on 6/16/2011 1:54:00 PM
  

  Played canasta.

  Rams said, on 6/17/2011 1:02:00 PM
  

  What did people do before the Internet allowed them to be rude from a safe, anonymous distance?

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13. Writing As Storytelling

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By: Stacy Nockowitz, on 3/24/2011
Blog: Some Novel Ideas (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  storytelling, writing, Meditations, Rebecca, Mark Dunn, Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth, Daphne duMaurier, Stacy Nockowitz, Ben Mikaelsen, Donna Tartt, Ella Minnow Pea, The Power of Merit Ruhl, The Secret History, Add a tag

    A few weeks ago, Ben Mikaelsen came to our school as this year's visiting author.  Ben was a delight, and I'll write more about his visit in another post, but for now, I want to concentrate on his philosophy about writing. 

    "Writing," he said, "is storytelling." 

Of all of the things that I got out of Ben's visit, and there were many, this simple sentence resonated with me in a way that I never would have expected. It stuck in my brain and kept tap, tap, tapping through my thoughts. You see, in some fantasy world of mine, I consider myself a writer.  I always have, from the time I was very young, around seven or eight years old.  It's all I wanted to do.  Well, that and read.

    So, why did the utterance of this sentence have such an effect on me?  I think I figured it out. See, the thing is, as much as I love to write, I am not much of a storyteller. What Mr. Mikaelsen was talking about was just letting go of the notion that every word needs to be weighty and special and telling the story you want to tell.  That has always been so incredibly hard for me.  When I write fiction, I gnaw my knuckles over every syllable and twist of phrase.  I get so caught up in trying to make every word the perfect word, I end up writing in nothing but fits and starts. Sometimes I even give up, thinking that it'll just never be perfect so why bother.

    Even now, as I write this post, I'm stewing about words.  How does one overcome that?  Because I think Ben is absolutely right.  The story is much more important than the words themselves.  If you can tell a great story, you can get around to fixing the words later.  Maybe in one of the fifteen full revisions that Ben says he does to each of his books!

    I have actually written a book, a YA novel called The Power of Merit Ruhl, which took me two years to write. I'm proud of it. I had a story I wanted to tell, and I told it.  But I agonized over words the whole time.  Now, I want to try to tell more stories.  I want to write a sequel to my book, and even make it into a series.  I have the stories to tell, the arc for each of the four major characters, in my head.  The question is will I be able to set aside my obssession with words and just tell the stories? 

    My favorite books tell really amazing stories. Donna Tartt's The Secret History is a good example of this. If you've never read it, go out right now and get yourself a copy.  It's the story of a small group of friends at a private college who do a terrible thing and then have to hide their mess.  This story left me breathless.  There is one point of such delicious suspense that I practically ripped the book because I was holding it so hard.  Another example of spectacular storytelling: Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier, a book that, though I've read it many times and even taught it, can still keep me enraptured to the very last page.  I don't necessarily remember all of the fancy phrasing and uses of foreshad

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14. Books I felt I ought to have liked but really didn’t: The Phantom Tollbooth

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By: Emily, on 6/7/2009
Blog: Underage Reading (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Flawed does not preclude Interesting, Juster, Norton, Phantom Tollbooth, The, Books I felt I ought to have liked but really didn't, Feiffer, Jules, Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth, Jules Feiffer, Childhood Reading, Add a tag

Everybody loves THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. It is many of my friends’ absolute all-time favorite kids book. I know I read it as a kid. I know I didn’t like it. I know I didn’t read it again. And that’s all I remember, and somehow even though everyone was always saying how much they loved it, I never picked it up again until now. Anyway, that’s the back story.

My feeling on recent reading is this: good book, but I totally can see why it hit wrong with me as a kid. Because the number one adjective I want to use for THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH is clever. Its incredibly clever. Its witty. The wordplay and puns are great, and I’m sure I would have picked up on them and enjoyed them back then as well.* But clever and witty alone does not a great book make. And that I think is my problem with this one. I did enjoy it. But I wasn’t really engrossed at all – there’s very little character-building, the characters are all kind of purposefully caricatures, and even when feelings or reactions by people were described, they were just kind of stated very matter of fact. I never actually found myself identifying with anyone. And while the constant humor kept the story from feeling like there was too much moralizing, it was nevertheless very clear that at each place, and with each character, a not-so-subtle point was being made about modern life, the way people behave, etc; to the point where those points felt in and of themselves to be the purpose of the story. Again, not something that really draws you (or at least me) in.

My other issue was that even plot-wise, the story kind of reads like a litany of “and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened.” Not much variety in pacing, and no time spent once the “point” of each episode had taken place – just “ok, that happened, next.” I’m being a little more negative than I really felt while I was reading the book – I really did enjoy it. But I can also totally see how as a kid I would have gotten bored. Puns are funny. A few pages or even a few chapters of clever wordplay and obvious-but-still-fun set-ups are fun. But a whole book of that and nothing else just isn’t enough.

Actually, now that I’m writing this and thinking it through further, I feel like a lot of the pieces of THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH would make for great picture books – short, clever, funny stories, with imaginative premises, and a lot of great illustrations already included. But a whole series of those just strung together one after another doesn’t quite do it for me. And that’s why I can’t summon the love of this book that so many folks have (although I’m glad that I now see why they do love it. Especially as so many of my friends are language-loving types), and why I probably read it once, was kind of amused and kind of bored, and was left without a strong enough impression to lead me to pick it up again.

*I was raised in a very pun-filled household. In my family, birthdays and other card-giving occasions are basically a standing competition to see who can find the card with the best pun or bad joke. There have been some real prize finds over the years.

Posted in Books I felt I ought to have liked but really didn't, Childhood Reading, Feiffer, Jules, Flawed does not preclude Interesting, Juster, Norton, Phantom Tollbooth, The

10 Comments on Books I felt I ought to have liked but really didn’t: The Phantom Tollbooth, last added: 6/10/2009

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Sadako said, on 6/7/2009 4:11:00 PM

I liked it when I first read it, but haven’t felt compelled to go back as I have with others. It’s kind of more, oh yeah I remember that. Not like, “Must reread every year or so,” like with Harriet the Spy or Madeleine L’Engle or others.

Lenore said, on 6/7/2009 5:31:00 PM

I totally get where you are coming from. It is clever, but the story itself leaves much to be desired.

Elizabeth said, on 6/7/2009 7:20:00 PM

You know, I get what you’re saying, but I think… clever is really enough for me. At least, if it’s clever enough. The worst is books that think they don’t have to do much else because they’re clever, but they really aren’t so much. But yeah, I loved the Phantom Tollbooth, and suspect I still would. (I read it many times as a child, but certainly not in the last decade.)

Also, don’t you like the name Milo?

Rhiannon Hart said, on 6/7/2009 7:55:00 PM

Great post Emily. You’ve inspired me to pen a similar post on my blog!

Becki said, on 6/8/2009 10:36:00 AM

I’m with you. The librarian at my elementary school was always pushing this book and everyone else seemed to love it, but I hated the thing. Your review totally summed up my feelings.

wickle said, on 6/8/2009 1:22:00 PM

I love The Phantom Tollbooth, I’ve read it four times in my adult life — including once out loud to my sons and once to record it.

Still, different strokes and all that …

If it helps, I’m a science fiction geek who thinks that Dune is agonizingly tedious. This brings much disdain from friends of mine, who insist that if I’d read it again I’d see how brilliant it is.

Let’s just say … no.

Kelly said, on 6/9/2009 1:35:00 AM

I’m not sure if I read it as a kid, but I read it as an adult and didn’t love it. Clever is the perfect word for it!

Emily said, on 6/9/2009 9:28:00 AM

Its so nice to find kindred spirits on this one – thanks guys. Elizabeth, I’m pretty sure you would still love this book now – I can see you just enjoying each funny bit and insisting on reading something aloud every couple of pages. Hmm, perhaps when you do pick it up again it would be best if you were in a room by yourself.
Rhiannon, I’m flattered! Going over to read your post now.

Elizabeth said, on 6/9/2009 9:31:00 AM

Dude, I don’t read things out loud to people! I live with someone who does, and it drives me nuts.

This is why I love our Wednesday Words: you can share the good bits without driving everyone around you to want to invest in better headphones and a white noise machine.

Sadako said, on 6/10/2009 9:12:00 AM

Emily, sometimes I do that. But only if it’s REALLY funny. In general, I sympathize–I hate being read to for the most part. I can’t do audio cassettes…for me reading is all about looking at the words. I always unconsciously tune out whenever anyone has read to me…teachers in elementary school, boyfriends who wanted to read the entire Lord of the Rings…etc.

Hm, maybe that would make a good blog posting. Reading vs. listening.

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