The Greatest Read “My life is absolutely horrendous! I’ve never even met my own parents, my legal guardians don’t love me let alone want me, they remind me every day what a burden it was to take me in and how lucky I am, I’m bullied at school, and I sleep on a porch! Could it get any worse!?” are all phrases the main character, Leven Thumps, in Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye, could have said… but did not. Which is part of why it is such a wonderful novel. Faced with adversity of all sorts, Leven takes on a quest and turns his originally dull and repetitive life into an exceptionally lively and astonishing adventure. Leven Thumps, a boy who at first glance isn’t special or of any importance to anyone, unexpectedly finds himself …show more content…
His one major flaw is self-doubt, the main reason is he is constantly told he is worthless and unwanted all his life and suddenly he is loved and not only wanted, but needed. However, he has an even larger help fueling that insecurity. In chapter 16 on page 144, it describes Sabine’s shadows as they fill “Leven’s head with a cavalcade of dark images calculated to convince Leven that he [is] worthless, without merit, and insane to take even one more step on the journey he had begun.” Those kind of degrading thoughts take quite a toll on Leven’s drive to keep going and eventually they erode his determination to a little pulp at which point he gives up and goes home. This event, which happens twice, takes a good sized chunk out of the allotted amount of time the small group has to complete their given task and sets them back quite a bit. After enough convincing, he always comes back… sort of. At one point on page 221, his little companion, named Clover, bites him to make him pass out so he won’t leave again, this also sets them back time wise. However, later in the book on page 322, Leven truly realizes where he needs to be and stands by his decision and trusts his new friends