Hi everyone!
#MGBookVillage is excited to bring you the cover reveal for Sean Easley’s The Hotel Between! This debut novel is also the November pick for the Middle Grade at Heart Book Club, so you are definitely going to want to read along with us!
A big thank you to Sean for letting us host the reveal and for taking the time to answer a few questions about The Hotel Between. You’ll hear more from Sean this fall since he’s scheduled to be a guest on the Books Between podcast.
Read my brief interview with Sean and check out the book’s magical cover below!
~ Corrina
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Hi Sean! Before we reveal the cover, can you tell us a bit about The Hotel Between?
Of course! But first, thanks so much for hosting; I love what you’re doing, and I’m really excited to be sharing my book here!
Okay, so the short version: The Hotel Between is a middle grade adventure about a boy who uses the enchanted doors in a magical hotel to search the world for his father. It’s a globe-spanning journey of learning what makes a family–both the family you’re born with and the family you choose–and discovering that what you think you know isn’t always true. And, more than anything, it’s about the connections between us all, and how the whole of humanity is bound together in this amazing, magical world family.
But now I’m getting all abstract, so instead of me rambling on here’s the publisher description:
“Twins Cam and Cass have never known their parents. They’ve been told their mother died, and Cass is certain their father abandoned them. Cam isn’t so sure. He wants to prove her wrong; he must.
Cam’s wish is soon granted in the form of a glistening, golden sign with elaborate flourishes that reads: The Hotel Between. With doors that open to countries all over the world, magical trollies, charmed corridors that can be altered on a whim, stone elephants that turn to life, sweets made from rocks; everything is possible in The Hotel. Cam has a hunch his father is somehow connected to this magical place, and may even be lost within its hidden halls.
Every journey has its risks, and The Hotel Between is full of dangerous secrets. If Cam’s not careful, his stay may be over before his vacation has even started.”
So, this being a book about traveling the world, what are some of the places the characters end up going?
Oh, the places you’ll go! We hop magical doors constantly throughout the book, starting out in Dallas but eventually making our way to Moscow, Budapest, Northern China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, a cruise ship in the Antarctic, Honduras and Sydney and Bermuda and India and… well, those are just the start. And to top it off, the Hotel Between itself is a magical place full of its own hidden mysteries to be explored.
Who is the artist that designed your cover? And what did you think when you saw the final version?
I had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I saw the unbelievable illustration from Petur Antonsson (you can find his stuff here: http://www.shannonassociates.com/peturantonsson). Never in my wildest dreams could I have expected anything this breathtaking. The colors! The doors showing the world! The elephant! The kids being awesome! It’s just incredible, and I’m so thankful to Petur for his illustration and the cover designer Chloe Foglia for her direction in putting it all together.
Let’s take a look!
I love that when you look at the cover from different angles, it shifts your perspective as a reader and you notice different details. Can you discuss how shifts in perspective might be included in the story?
Me too! The perspective-defying layout is one of the things I love most about Petur’s illustration. In the book, there’s a tangible reason for the layout of the hotel to not make complete sense spatially, but also this is a book about the world as a whole, and how people–and kids–fit into it. So that dynamic fits the book in so many ways.
One of the biggest examples of changing perspectives is how the main character reacts to his sister throughout. Cam goes into the story feeling like he has to protect Cass–who was born with a serious and complicated health condition–from her own sense of adventure. It’s that assumed responsibility that drives him on his own adventure out into the wide world looking for help. But as Cam encounters new people and discovers that he doesn’t know all the things he assumes he knows, his understanding of his sister can finally begin to change, and he can start believing in her they way she believes in herself. The same is true for who Cam chooses to trust, what relationships he builds, etc.
Sean – thanks so much for letting us take a peek at the cover of The Hotel Between! When can readers get it, and where is a good place to preorder?
The Hotel Between is coming September 4, 2018 from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. It’s up for preorder at the following places: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound. Also, feel free to add it to your Goodreads TBR!
Thank you, Sean!
No, thank YOU for having me!
Sean Easley started writing in third grade because he was looking for adventure. He’s worked with kids and teens for well over a decade, listening to their stories, and somehow ended up with a Master’s degree in education along the way. Now he’s a full-time writer living with his wife and son in Texas, where he stubbornly refuses to wear cowboy boots. Visit him at SeanEasley.com and on Twitter and Instagram @AuthorEasley.
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