Current Read-Aloud

We are reading The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It is a modern day fairy tale about a bored boy named Milo who drives through a magic tollbooth to have adventures in a new and different world. While he is there, he learns many things.

"Whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way. Why, when a housefly flaps his wings, a breeze goes round the world; when a speck of dust falls to the ground, the entire planet weighs a little more; and when you stamp your foot, the earth moves slightly off its course. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in a pond; and whenever you're sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer."