![]() He goes on a mission to find the two princesses that have been kidnapped. And all that gets changed when he goes through the tollbooth, and finds himself in the lands beyond the tollbooth, and meets all kinds of dozens, and dozens of strange characters. He is just kind of filled with a kind of like preadolescent malaise. Everything is boring to him at the beginning. Now, what it's worth saying is that Milo is very bored with life. And so Milo decides, he gets a little map and he decides to go on an adventure. They still do to some extent, but this is an old-fashioned looking tollbooth with a lever that went up and down. Like a tollbooth that they used to have on the highways. But, in the box, is a miniature car and a tollbooth. And one day he comes home to his room to find a box with a card and a note. A city that seems a lot like New York City in like the '60s. For anyone who isn't familiar with the book, would you mind summarizing it for us? Anytime I had to add on my fingers would appreciate it. I am much more a word person too, and I wish I had had it when I was 8, 9, 10, as you did. I have to say that I feel like coming to it as an adult, I wish I'd had it as a kid, because I think it would have changed my relationship with numbers. Maybe I wouldn't have been an actor if I hadn't read The Phantom Tollbooth. Yes, there is a whole section on mathematics, but I just loved language, wordplay. It really affected my life, because it was so much about, especially about, language. And it was just a fascinating read for me. And I laughed, and I was scared and perplexed. It was one of those rare books that filled me with awe all the way through. I don't know if it was required reading at my school or not - maybe I was 8, 9, 10 years old, somewhere in there - and I just couldn't believe it. And then, a couple years later I discovered The Phantom Tollbooth. And I really didn't think that that could ever be topped. Growing up, my favorite book in the world was Alice in Wonderland. RW: This was an absolutely seminal book for me. ![]() What's your relationship with the book? Did you know it before you were invited to be the narrator on it? I didn't pick it up until I was in my twenties. And I always have to admit that I didn't have it as a kid, and I really wish I had. ![]() I have to tell you that I know probably a dozen people, at least, who cite The Phantom Tollbooth as a childhood favorite book. Who knows? We can create a new word for it as we go along. Thanks for having me on this thing, whatever it is. But, at Audible, we are talking about him as the extraordinary narrator of the extraordinary classic The Phantom Tollbooth. Or, you might even know him as an advocate and the co-founder of LIDÈ Haiti, a non-profit which empowers and educates girls in rural Haiti. I can tell you that's where I turn when I need a reminder that there is good in the world. He might have crossed your path on YouTube as the co-founder of SoulPancake. You might know him from his onscreen roles including Dwight Schrute of The Office. Heather Scott: Hello, this is Heather Scott, editor of Kids and YA at Audible. Note: Text has been edited and may not match audio exactly. Listen in as actor Rainn Wilson talks with editor Heather Scott about what the book means to him, how he tackled the deliberately confusing wording, and how the surprise guest narrator joined the project. One childhood fan in particular recently found himself in the enviable position of getting to narrate this masterpiece. For so many, Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth was just that book, with its clever wordplay and sneaky learning fun. There are books that we're introduced to as children that become bedrock to our sense of self or how we see the world.
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