The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Children’s writer Norton Juster, 91
Norton Juster, the celebrated children’s author who fashioned a world of his own in the classic The Phantom Tollbooth and went on to write such favourites as The Dot And The Line and Stark Naked, has died aged 91.
Juster’s death was confirmed by a spokesperson for Random House Children’s Books, who did not immediately provide details.
Juster’s friend and fellow author Mo Willems tweeted that Juster “ran out of stories” and died “peacefully”.
“Norton’s greatest work was himself: a tapestry of delightful tales,” Willems wrote.
As Juster wrote in the introduction to a reissue of The
Phantom Tollbooth, he first thought of the book when he was in his late 20s and working at an architectural firm in New York City.
He found himself wondering, the way a child might, about how people relate to the world around them, and eventually turned it into a story.
Published in 1961, The Phantom Tollbooth followed the adventures of young Milo through the Kingdom of Wisdom, a land extending from The Foothills Of Confusion to The Valley Of Sound.
Drawings were provided by his roommate at the time, Jules Feiffer, who would later collaborate with Juster on The Odious Ogre, published in 2010.
Having launched their Spanish cuisine takeaway during lockdown, the couple behind Los Buenos Amigos have set up a trailer to carry tapas boxes to customers unable to visit their shop.
Food and drink businesses have spent the past 12 months adapting as restaurants, cafes and bars faced an unprecedented number of closures and restrictions.
One of the newest enterprises to emerge is The Wee Tapas Box from the team behind Kirkcaldy’s Los Buenos Amigos.
Owner Alicia Aparicio said the idea started from a desire to sell her native cuisine at local markets.
“In 2019 I had an idea to sell paella at the local market, so I started building that up bit by bit. Then the pandemic came and all the markets closed.
“Then I started selling food from my house. That did really well and lots of
people started asking me where my shop was. I didn’t have one but then I decided to open a takeaway, which is what we have now on Victoria Road in Kirkcaldy”.
With demand soaring but many people unable to visit the takeaway due to lockdown, Alicia decided to find a way to bring her food to the people who couldn’t come
to her. She continued: “Then so many people from further afield were requesting delivery and we couldn’t deliver outside Kirkcaldy. Due to the demand, though, we decided to get The Wee Tapas Box and be able to travel with deliveries.”
Alicia hopes to take The Wee Tapas Box further afield into the likes of Perth and Dundee.