Learn to talk without moving your lips, and even dumb jokes sound funny from a dummy. Surely the universe holds darker secrets; still, there's surprisingly little about ventriloquism in print at the moment, and even though the writing here is often tangled and perplexing (``take particular care to lower and raise the roof of your mouth...''), many kids continue to be fascinated by the subject. Illustrated with adequate, if uninspired, cartoons; open, more-than-generous format with the text printed in a single narrow column that makes it look approachable but fails to conceal its brevity (i.e., paper squandered for naught). Index. (Nonfiction. 8+)