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 Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

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)

In this sequel to Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo, Leven continues his adventures inside Foo. A standard quest story, the book is filled with episodic scenes in which characters bounce between crisis and recovery. Leven and the others are flat, reactive characters who wander in confusion and make no progress along their own story arcs.