The Whispered Secret (Leven Thumps Series #2)

by Obert Skye, Ben Sowards (Illustrator)

Overview

You must be ready to join Leven Thumps, Clover Ernest, and Winter Frore as they journey across Foo to free Geth from his existence as a toothpick and restore him as the rightful heir to the throne. It won't be easy. Foo is in chaos, and Leven must overcome several adversaries and survive the Swollen Forest to save his friends and keep hope alive. As fate would have it, bad goes to worse when Leven digs up a buried secret — one that stalks him, determined to whisper a truth that could be deadly in the wrong hands. Will Leven master control of his power, or will Foo crumble under a dark, new enemy?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416947189
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	09/25/2007
Series:	Leven Thumps Series , #2
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	204,147
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.30(d)
Lexile:	860L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

About the Author

Obert Skye was born on a stormy night in the back of a fast-moving taxi, in the middle of the week during an average-length year. He is the middle child in a family with an odd number of children. Obert’s interests include falling from great heights, devouring books, and fighting for Foo. He also likes the beach. The author of the bestselling Leven Thumps series, Obert travels around the world telling all who will listen about the importance of Foo. He currently lives in the United States in a place a bit colder than he would prefer.

Editorial Reviews

The delicious madness that began in Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo starts anew in this runaway fun park ride of a novel. As usual, this Obert Skye adventure defies svelte synopsis. Suffice it to say that Leven and his cohorts are obliged to journey across Foo to reconstitute Geth, who presently looks like a toothpick. But with chaos reigning everywhere, even that simple transformation seems impossible.

Originally published by Shadow Mountain in Salt Lake City, Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye, illus. by Ben Sowards, is now being distributed in hardcover by Simon & Schuster, which is publishing this title as an Aladdin paperback . This YA fantasy about an Oklahoma orphan who finds the secret gateway to Foo, a mythical land where it is possible for humans to hope, dream and imagine, has already sold more than 60,000 copies in hardcover. The second title in the planned five-book series, Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret, will release in October. See Children's Bookshelf, June 1, for the complete story. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 5–8
Fourteen-year-old Leven Thumps and his not-so-merry band of Foo denizens return. Things start going badly right from the start. Homes are destroyed, people are buried in dirt or encased in ice, planes almost crash, and poor Geth, once a powerful and respected person, is turned into a toothpick and swallowed. The characters aren't compelling, and the most interesting parts of the story take place in Reality and not in Foo at all. The "Whispered Secret" is somewhat of a letdown. The ending sets the stage for yet another outing. Fans of Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo (Shadow Mountain, 2005) might be able to make heads or tails of the story, but everyone else will be totally lost.
—Mara AlpertCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

In a severe case of middle-volume-itis, plot lines proliferate, the pace slows and the tale is left in mid-flight in this follow-up to the better-than-it-looked Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo (2005). Here, young Leven and his companions are repeatedly separated and reunited as they struggle to make their way across the dream-driven realm of Foo to restore Geth, its rightful ruler (but currently imprisoned in a much-used toothpick), to his former glory. Back in reality, coagulated globs of the exploded arch-villain Sabine gain human allies to rebuild the gateway that will leave both worlds vulnerable to conquest. As before, Skye displays a dab hand at crafting both baroque metaphors and uniquely grotesque menaces; he also blends in clever details (from Leven chewing on a "Pigment-o" to disguise his coloration, for instance, to a humble garbage collector with children named Darcy and Rochester), though more thinly than in the previous episode. Despite extensive closing notes, readers unfamiliar with that first outing are likely to flounder, but Skye's world-building is inventive enough to carry the tale at least a little farther. Frequent full-page illustrations not seen. (Fantasy. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews