Product Description

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

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58481 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 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 © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bookreview.com, Heather Froeschl
Foo exists to remind us to hope, imagine and dream. Obert Skye has a true talent for creating the mystical and drawing readers into his world.

About the Author
Obert Skye slipped into our building (Shadow Mountain Publishing) like a shadow. We looked up and there he was standing against the wall and smiling. He told us the story of Foo and of the gateway and of Leven, claiming it was a real place whose story had real consequences. His tale immediately captivated us.

He showed us the pages of his work and objects that he felt proved Foo's existence. We were in awe at the idea but told Obert we saw the story as fiction, not reality. We then suggested a series of children's fantasy novels beginning with, Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo. Needless to say, Obert was offended and left as quickly as he could gather his things.

The story stayed with us, and the marvelous idea of Foo was one we could not shake. Three days later Obert returned. He looked tired and worn, as if he had been across the world and back. He had also come to the realization that the tale simply needed to be told and that if we weren't wise enough to see the truth, and insisted on calling it fiction, so be it. We were more than happy to oblige and publish his fictional story.

We understand that there are those who might think Obert is, well, unbalanced, but we at Shadow Mountain think he's just misunderstood. After all, some people believe in Santa. Some people believe in fairy tales. And we think some people will soon believe in Foo.

Customer Reviews

loved it!
Leven is a great kid with a bad life but with his new life its all good this lots action and mystery everywhere. Can't wait to read whats next.

Return to Foo
My goodness, but the mysterious Mr. Skye is certainly the master of the plot twist! This is a truly exhilerating story that picks right back up where the original book left off to give us a terrifying and wondrous blast into Foo (though maybe "blast" isn't the right way to describe it). The plot is properly complex and is full of a wild assortment of characters, both good and evil. And yet it is the twisting and turning wild plot that makes this book so fascinating. Foo is a very real world despite being a dream world and Obert Skye is not afraid to return to the real world at times to weave whatever crazy story he is weaving. Enchanting, original ideas make up for only decent writing in parts, but it is certainly worth it. This is fresh, wild fantasy that should capture quite a bit of attention.

Almost as good as the first.
I've been anticipating reading this book about half as much as the latest Harry Potter. This is a good thing considering that there are very few books that I anticipate reading before they have even come out. I read the first Leven Thumps last year after seeing it at Walmart for a few bucks. I thought "well, it will probably be one of those annoying Harry Potter rip-offs, but maybe I'll give it a shot". As SQT said, it was nothing like Harry Potter at all. In fact, it was so bizarre and entertaining that it got me dreaming about reading the second book.
So here I am with the wonderful opportunity to read the second book for this blog (thanks SQT).
The Whispered Secret takes place immediately after the end of the first book--the Gateway to Foo. Leven has found some of his real family in Amelia, Geth is still a toothpick, Winter is coming to terms with who she really is, and Clover is still giving out bizarre candies to his friends. And Sabine is defeated. Right?
Wrong. It turns out that Sabine was split into a million little liquid pieces, some of which made it to Foo and some of which remained back in Reality. And now a rant--a person who is half normal and half of whatever someone in Reality is dreaming-- named Jamoon has taken the lead in bringing the two realms together and destroying Leven, Winter, and Geth, and ultimately Foo.

This sequel continues some of the brilliant world building that made the first book so much fun. We learn about all sorts of things that make up the land of Foo, from the people that live there to the very landscape. Everything seems to have a life of its own, even the rocks and trees. This is one of the things I love about Skye's writing. He has a wonderful way of taking things that seem so normal and making them original. Bridges are actually alive and have to be flattered before crossing otherwise you end up falling to your...well, not our death because people can't really die in Foo unless it's an accident. See, even death has been fiddled with!
For the most part the book is pretty good. The characters are all enjoyable, and the writing is clearly for a younger audience and yet very entertaining. There are some points where the writing does seem to get in the way, but they are very seldom. Clover is my favorite character in the entire book. He is the comedic relief for the story, and hilarious. Especially the toothpick jokes. The characters are probably the strongest point of the novel. They are all so interesting and dynamic, even the secondary characters.
My biggest complaint with this installment in the series are the plotlines that don't seem to get closed. The book is called The Whispered Secret for a very specific reason, yet that plotline doesn't really get closed at the end, instead it is drawn out into the next book. Secondary characters that show up (Dennis, Ezra, Sabine in his other form, and Tim Tuttle) seem to play an important role, yet in this book they don't accomplish a whole lot. I think those secondary characters could have been left out in this book and brought in in the next installment. That might have to do with the fact that the multiple viewpoints needed to bring all these characters in seem to affect the flow of the story. This seems to be the major difference between this book and the first. Despite that, this book is still fantastic. I was still gripped much like in the first from start to finish. It's a wonderful book for kids of all ages. I could see myself reading it at a library.
And never trust anything a sycophaunt pulls out of his or her void and asks you to eat. It could mean bad things for your digestive system!