Norton Juster's 1961 novel – I won't call it a children's novel, because it's a delightful book for people of all ages – The Phantom Tollbooth is a story in this vein. It follows the adventures of a bored boy named Milo in the divided Kingdom of Wisdom. The map to said kingdom (drawn by cartoonist Jules Feiffer) can be seen above and is another great example of a weird map.
I loved this book as a kid. It, and other books in this vein like The Sleeping Dragon had a huge influence on me. In fact, my own Tekumel campaign involves characters that were transported there from 1976 America. I have wanted to work something like that into a RPG since I was a kid and finally saw the chance.
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