Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo
by Obert Skye

Leven is an orphan with shaggy, dark hair and bad eyesight. He has spent all of his miserable young life being raised by a couple who would rather not have him around – his mother’s half-sister and her worthless husband. He doesn’t even know that he has magical powers, or that a dark lord from a magical world wants to destroy him in a very personal way. Does this sound familiar?

Well, it shouldn’t. It’s brand new! Leven’s bedroom isn’t a cupboard under the stairs (I don’t know why you thought it would be), but a screened-in porch off the back of the single-wide trailer he shares with Terry and Addy Chalk of Burnt Culvert, Oklahoma. He doesn’t wear glasses (though he should), and his identifying mark isn’t a scar but a shock of white hair on one side of his head. And the magical world he belongs to isn’t in reality, but in another realm created to give the hopes and dreams of mankind a place to live – a realm called Foo.

Somehow, a portal has been opened between reality and Foo, and for some reason, only Leven Thumps can close it. Close it he must, before a totally wicked (and I don’t mean that in the fun way) being called Sabine finds it, and uses it to conquer and rule both worlds with his hourde of sinister shadows. If that happens, Foo will collapse, people will be unable to dream, and the world will end in despair. So letting that happen would be a pretty bad idea.

The problem is, Leven doesn’t believe in himself. Even with a cute furry friend named Clover, a runaway girl named Winter whose special powers make her name very appropriate, and a walking, talking toothpick named Geth, it isn’t easy to keep Leven awake. Every time he sleeps, Sabine’s shadows find him and make him believe that he’s worthless. And when he awakes, some hideous creature always seems to be chasing him. So, bottom line: Leven’s friends have to keep him awake, and running faster than the hideous creatures, until they reach the gate and can destroy it.

They have five days to do it.

And by the way, the gate is in Germany. A looooooooong walk from Oklahoma.

Do they make it? Well, let’s see – there’s a sequel coming out, so one would hope the world doesn’t end in this book. How do they make it? Well, that would be telling. But think of all the things a boy can do when he has the ability to see what’s about to happen, and change it...when his best friend has the ability to turn things into ice at the speed of thought...and when he’s too tired, running too fast, and under too much pressure to really think about what’s happening.

Even so, he’s up against an extremely resourceful enemy. It’s amazing how he survives...yet even when Leven finally gets to shut his eyes and rest, it isn’t the end. The adventure is only beginning. It continues in Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret.

P.S. Get a load of the author’s biographical blurb at the end of this book. It seems that Obert Skye comes from the same school as Lemony Snicket and N. E. Bode.

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 12+

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