"The Phantom Tollbooth", is a children´s story that was written by Norton Juster and that was published in 1961. The story narrates the life of a little boy named Milo, who receives an anonimous toy tollbooth through which he gains access to a whole new world filled with adventures that make Milo learn about the joys of learning, discovery and being ready to use your mind when deciphering new things. Along the way, in the Lands Beyond, and especially on his way to Dictionopolis, Milo encounters characters that force him to come out of his laziness, especially when it comes to learning and thinking, to find they joys and usefulness in it. In parts 1 and 2 of the story, when Milo has crossed in his toy car, after the initial shock of seeing such a new place as the Lands Beyond and being brought out into a new world of discovery, he is faced with a place where the sameness makes him drop back into laziness and he stops trying to figure things out. But then, when he arrives at the place called Doldrums, a place filled with boredom and laziness, he is faced with another character known as the watchdog, who helps Milo to return to his newfound state of wonder and discovery. Milo finds out that thinking is illegal in the Doldrums precisely because its existence depends on the acts of Milo. If the child recovers his state of wonder, then the Doldrums will change even physically, but if there is no thought process, then the Doldrums will remain as they are: boring, filled with sameness and laziness.
