THE DOOR AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Friends, I’ve got a cover to share!

THE DOOR AT THE END OF THE WORLD, the book I crashed into and stumbled through, will be published by HarperCollins Children’s Books next spring, in April of 2019, and I am so pleased and excited to be able to tell you a bit more about it. It’s a world-hopping fantasy adventure for young readers, starring characters I adore–smugglers! bureaucrats! royalty! bees! There’s a sprinkling of magic, a whiff of science fiction, and, I hope you’ll find, a substantial amount of fun.

Here’s the beautiful cover, illustrated by Poly Bernatene:

The Door at the End of the World

Here’s a little more about the book:

There’s no signpost to mark the end of the world, so you need to know what you’re looking for: a gatehouse, a garden, a tall brick wall overgrown with flowering vines. . . and the door. You’ll have to wait a while, too, since the Gatekeeper likes to take her time. Traveling from one world to the next isn’t something a person should do on a whim, and she wants to make sure you mean it.

What begins as a rather unremarkable Thursday quickly turns to disaster when Lucy, the Gatekeeper’s deputy, discovers that her boss has vanished, the door connecting Lucy’s world to the next world over is broken—and it might all be Lucy’s fault. To save the Gatekeeper and set things right, Lucy must break the rules for the first time ever and journey with an otherworldly boy, a suspiciously sneaky girl, and a crew of magical bees into the seven worlds beyond her own.

But Lucy isn’t the only one breaking the rules. As curiosities and dangers gather around her, she learns she’s up against a sinister force that’s playing with the delicate fabric of time and space, no matter what the deadly costs or consequences. Lucy’s never had to save the world before—and now, somehow, she’s got to find a way to save eight of them.

And here are some of the research questions I asked as I wrote:

  • How does a Model T Ford work?
  • How far can bees fly from their hive?
  • What part of the world is antipodal to central Europe?
  • What American city is roughly halfway between Switzerland and New Zealand?
  • Can eight spheres of different sizes all touch one another simultaneously?
  • Is it really true that cows can’t go down stairs?

I’ll share more information about how you can get your own copy of THE DOOR AT THE END OF THE WORLD as publication day approaches, but for now, you can add it to your reading list on Goodreads.