The Hidden World (Tom Scatterhorn Trilogy: Book 2) -- Henry Chancellor

It's been a long long while since I last read a children's adventure story.  Pressed for time, I had had to rush through the library's collection as some books had been due that day.  The cover of this particular novel, and its first page which I had quickly scanned, interested me immensely and I took it up impulsively. 

The Hidden World is actually the second book of the Tom Scatterhorn trilogy.  I have not had the occasion to read the first, but then The Museum's Secret sounds too much like that Ben Stiller starrer Night at the Museum, so I doubt it would particularly interest me in any case. 

Tom Scatterhorn finds himself once again under the charge of his aunt and uncle.  He works at the Scatterhorn museum now, actually being its owner, which he learns to his pride from his uncle.  The items on display are all his friends, so the museum is like a second home to him.  He settles down to an ordinary holiday until his parents, off on an insect-hunting adventure of their own, return to pick him up. 

But of course, things go wrong.  A strange girl, Pearl Smoot, arrives at the museum which she tries to enter by stealth.  She has come to give Tom an ominous message -- her father and brother have been taken away by Don Gervase Askary, Tom's old enemy.  Her father has been eavesdropping through the radio, a favorite pasttime of his, and has picked up a few secrets that Don Gervase is very keen on discovering -- secrets that will boost his power immensely, extending it beyond his beetle world to the human world. She manages to instigate Tom to help her by informing him of the possibility that his own parents have been captured too.  The two of them embark on a very harrowing adventure to save their family.

I am impressed by the rich imagination that the author has put to use in creating this book of adventure.  There are various points that would hold the interest of young people, such as time travel and the creepy but believable new world of the beetles, Scarazand.  I especially love the way he tries to apply logic to most of the unsavory things that happen, such as the particular species of beetle that can enter into the ear and deposit an egg that affects the human brain, making it susceptible to beetle signals.  The evil creatures in this book are so creatively put together, you can't help but be drawn by the logic of it all.  You're left with the feeling that the story could not have run on in any other way.  The writing is pretty lucid, though the story does fall a bit flat in places.  The book is hefty, more than 500 pages long, and could be a trial to younger kids who find it hard to focus on so many details, but as for myself, I shall shamelessly say that I derived immense enjoyment on reading this book.  I hope to soon lay my hands on the third book of the series, The Forgotten Echo.