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1-Page Summary of The Phantom Tollbooth
Milo, a boy who is bored with life, receives an unusual package one day. It’s a tollbooth that makes him go to the Lands Beyond, where he meets new friends and has many adventures. His mission is to rescue princesses Rhyme and Reason from the Castle in the Air. He goes on this journey with Tock and Humbug. All of them are trying to persuade Mathemagician to release them from their prison cell in Digitopolis.
On their way to Digitopolis, Milo and the Humbug encounter many unusual people. One of them is Alec Bings, who floats above the ground because he hasn’t grown down yet. In his family, everyone’s heads are always at exactly the same height and their legs grow until they touch the earth. After that, they proceed past two cities: Reality and Illusions (which aren’t real). They also meet Chroma and watch him conduct a symphony of colors in his sleep. Milo tries conducting one himself but makes a mess of it; however, he fixes it before anyone notices.
Milo is tired and his friends are hungry. They all decide to go to the Valley of Sound, where they meet a fake doctor who deals in noises. Once Milo and his friends escape the doctor’s horrible racket, they find themselves in the Valley of Sound, which turns out to be completely silent. The people of that valley steal sounds from Dischord (the fake doctor) and Dynne (a monster made of smoke), then open up their sound vault with those stolen sounds.
After helping save the Valley of Sound, Milo and his friends continue on their way to Digitopolis but take a detour to the Island of Conclusions. They decide that they should go through the Sea of Knowledge, which is filled with assumptions. After swimming across it, they arrive at Digitopolis and meet up with someone who has twelve faces but only one expression for each face. He takes them into a mine where numbers are pulled out like jewels from the ground. Next, he shows them around an area where knowledge is mined (the Mountains of Ignorance). Finally, he agrees to release Princesses Rhyme and Reason if Milo climbs through those mountains.
Although they are afraid of what they might encounter, Milo and his friends go into the Mountains of Ignorance. They meet a dirty little bird who twists their words around to mean something else, a man with no features on his face who stalls them by making them do meaningless busywork, and a demon who tries to trick them into leaving the path to Castle in the Air. Fortunately for Milo, he learned how to escape those demons from previous journeys in Lands Beyond. He manages to get past each one of those demons and make it up an unbelievably tall staircase that leads him right up to Rhyme and Reason.
The princesses are happy to hear that Azaz and the Mathemagician have agreed to release them. They’re even happier when they learn that Tock can fly, allowing them to reach the Mountains of Ignorance quickly. When they arrive at the demons’ camp, it looks like all is lost until Azaz and the Mathemagician suddenly show up with their armies. The two leaders welcome home the princesses and celebrate their return by having a party with everyone else there.
Milo must also return home, and he says goodbye to all of his friends. He returns to his bedroom where only a few minutes have passed since he left it the day before. The next day, Milo hurries home from school with dreams of further adventures. But when he arrives at the tollbooth, it is gone… replaced by a note that tells him that there are endless fantastic adventures awaiting him in every corner of the universe—even in his own room!
