How long does it take to read The Phantom Tollbooth?
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster takes about 4 hours 41 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 41 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1961. 255 pages, about 70,125 words. Written for children.
10 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 7 hours 48 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 41 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 55 minutes |
The page count is the median across 65 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
The Phantom Tollbooth is a children's fantasy adventure novel written by Norton Juster with illustrations by Jules Feiffer. It was published in 1961 by Random House (USA). It tells the story of a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollbooth one afternoon and, having nothing better to do, drives through it in his toy car, transporting him to the Kingdom of Wisdom, once prosperous but now troubled. There, he acquires two faithful companions, a dog named Tock and the Humbug, and goes on a quest to restore to the kingdom its exiled princesses—named Rhyme and Reason—from the Castle in the Air. In the process, he learns valuable lessons, finding a love of learning. The text is full of puns and wordplay, such as when Milo unintentionally jumps to Conclusions, an island in Wisdom, thus exploring the literal meanings of idioms.
Subjects: letters, numbers, orchestras, adventure, Creativity and Imagination, Boredom
