Hotel Dare

by Terry Blas (Author) Claudia Aguirre (Illustrator)

Hotel Dare
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

It's not your typical family vacation when Olive, and her adopted siblings Darwin and Charlotte find themselves falling into other worlds as they explore Grandma Lupé's strange hotel.

OPEN THE DOOR. ADVENTURE AWAITS.

Olive and her adopted siblings Charlotte and Darwin are spending the summer with their estranged grandma at her creepy hotel and it's all work and no play. They're stuck inside doing boring chores but they soon stumble upon an incredible secret... Behind each room door of the hotel lies a portal to a different strange and mysterious place. The simple turn of a knob transports them to a distant magical world filled with space pirates. Behind the next door are bearded wizards. Down the hall is a doorway to a cotton-candied kingdom. But once the doors are opened, worlds start colliding, and only one family can save them before they tear themselves apart.

Written by Terry Blas (The Amazing World of Gumball) and illustrated by the talented Claudia Aguirre (Kim & Kim), this world-hopping fantasy tale breaks down the door to imagination and dares you to embrace the idea that family is everything.

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School Library Journal

Gr 3-7-Siblings Olive, Darwin, and Charlotte are sent to their abuela's hotel in Mexico for the summer. Abuela asks them to assist in cleaning several rooms of the hotel but specifies that they are not to enter her office. When the trio inevitably break the one rule they've been given, they inadvertently unlock doorways to other worlds. When Charlotte disappears, Abuela is forced to explain why their abuelo is missing and to enlist their help in traveling through the different worlds to search for him and the missing Charlotte. This graphic novel is a blend of mystery, science fiction, and adventure as the siblings encounter various beings in the different worlds they explore in their attempt to reunite their entire family. While at times the novel is heavy-handed with its emphasis on the importance of family, the dialogue carries the story through boldly colored panels filled with action sequences that will keep readers turning pages. World-building is kept to a minimum; a lack of exposition regarding each of the places the siblings visit may be a disappointment to those who enjoy detailed descriptions of other worlds. VERDICT With a mysterious hotel, space pirates, and a visit to the land of the dead, this book will have a broad appeal. Give to fans of Mark Siegel's "Five Worlds" series or Molly Ostertag's Witch Boy.-Jenni Frencham, Indiana University, Bloomington

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Terry Blas
Terry Blas is the illustrator and writer behind the viral webcomics You Say Latino and You Say Latinx (Vox.com). He has written comics for Ariana Grande and the series Steven Universe, and Rick and Morty. His original graphic novels are Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom (Oni Press), Hotel Dare (Kaboom!), and Lifetime Passes (Abrams/Surely Books 2021). He is the writer for the Marvel superhero series Reptil, as well as Who Was the Voice of the People?: Cesar Chavez (Penguin Workshop). He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his husband, Scott, and their dog, Alfie.

Mar Julia is an Ignatz award nominated cartoonist and illustrator from Providence, Rhode Island. Their debut graphic novel Brownstone, a collaboration with writer Samuel Teer, is scheduled for release from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Versify imprint in 2022.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781684152056
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Kaboom
Publication date
June 11, 2019
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV013030 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Multigenerational
JUV013070 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Siblings
JUV008040 - Juvenile Fiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | Action & Adventure
JUV008080 - Juvenile Fiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | Fantasy
Library of Congress categories
Brothers and sisters
Adventure and adventurers
Graphic novels
Comic books, strips, etc
Hotels
Science fiction comics
Action and adventure comics
Horror comics

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