Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo

Title: Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo
Author: Obert Skye
Genre: YA Fantasy
Page Count: 339
Why I read it: saw it featured in the back of Fablehaven
Grade: D

Synopsis:
Fourteen-year-old Leven Thumps (a.k.a. "Lev") lives a wretched life in Burnt Culvert, Oklahoma. But his life is about to change and his destiny be fulfilled as he learns about a secret gateway that bridges two worlds -- the real world and Foo, a place created at the at the beginning of time in the folds of the mind that makes it possible for mankind to dream and hope, aspire and imagine. But Foo is in chaos, and three transplants from that dreamworld have been sent to retrieve Lev, who alone has the power to save Foo.

My review:
I really didn't like this one.  It was so bad that I had to skim heavily to even finish it.  The author was trying really hard to be clever, but it just didn't mesh with my sense of humor, I guess.  I found it more grating than funny.  It seemed that the author was going for a really quirky, fun story, but I was mostly bored.

It's labeled (at least at my library) as young adult fiction, and I think that was definitely a mis-label.  It's definitely juvenile fiction.  Compared to some of the really awesome YA fiction I've been reading, this one just seems really amateur.  I'm sure there's a market for this kind of book, but I'm not it, so I won't be continuing with this series.