The Dot and the Line

We are quite taken with Norton Juster. “The Phantom Tollbooth” has been read dozens of times by both Madeleine and Henry. Henry’s a tricky one to get to read chapter books. He’s more interested in the non-fiction Eyewitness books that are filled with pictures and information. So I was very pleased that he loved the “Phantom Tollbooth” and the writing suited his quirky sense of humor. Because we loved Juster‘s clever word plays and imagination, we found this gem .

 The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics
Norton Juster 2001

The story is about a flirty little dot who has no interest in the boring straight line who’s taken with her. The pages mix text and pictures and we think the mathematical puns are fantastic. (I guess we’re just big geeks!)










The line figures out how to bend and make complex shapes, declaring “Freedom is not a license for chaos”. The dot finally takes notice and ditches her “undisciplined, unkempt, and unaccountable, insignificant, indeterminate, and inadvertent” squiggle boyfriend.