Independent booksellers across the country have chosen The Dino Door (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) by Josh Funk and illustrated by Renée Kurilla as their top pick for the May/June 2026 Kids’ Indie Next List. 
“A delightful and whimsical journey! From the rhyming play on all the dino words, to the vibrant colors in the illustrations, it is enjoyable in every way. If only all our time doing chores was as fun as it is in The Dino Door,” said Joanna Robertson of The Treehouse Reading and Arts Center in New York Mills, NY.
Here, Funk and Kurilla discuss The Dino Door with Bookselling This Week.
Bookselling This Week: How did this book get started? Tell me a little bit about where the idea came from.
Josh Funk: This was an interesting book for me. Most of my books go through what I think of as the normal process — coming up with an idea, brainstorming, writing a first draft, sharing it with critique partners, doing multiple drafts, and sharing it with my agent months later. This book came together very quickly, because it only has 20 different words in it.
I thought it would be cool to write a story that was told with words that all rhymed, so I started making a list in my head of all the words that that rhymed with dinosaur.
I didn't think it was going to be called The Dino Door right away, but at some point I realized that I wouldn't be able to get all of the words to work in the same universe. Some of the words made sense for a kid in a normal world, and some of the words made sense if you were out having an adventure. The door was the perfect entrance and exit that allowed me use all of these words.
I like to write books as if they are a puzzle, and this is definitely one of those books that started out as a puzzle.
There's only really one word per illustration; and unlike most of my other books, I wrote it that night, I revised it in the morning, then I sent it to my agent.
BTW: What did your process look like, Renée? Were you just handed this book with 20 words and set free?
Renée Kurilla: I read it and I was just instantly lost in the world. I could see the pictures in my head and that's a good sign that this is something I want to illustrate.
We had, I think, a year to do the art. Josh had some notes in the margins guiding me through his thought process, and I took that and I literally just start drawing with crayon. I started doodling and I drew a character sliding down a dinosaur's neck, then other fun ways you could interact with dinosaurs.
The hardest part for me was how to get through the door. I had originally imagined the main character maybe building something out of cardboard. Then is just hit me. When you're drawing, you get lost in the world that you're in, so I imagined them drawing a scene.
I just love the idea of using your imagination to pretend you're somewhere else and having a blast, so this book was absolutely a dream to work on.
JF: I didn't give Renée very much help with the how we get into the world.
I had said, “The kid’s playing in their room, and they have a messy floor. They finally clean it up and discover a door under the mess.”
Renée fixed that problem, because it never really did make sense. I didn't give her that solution. Renée did a perfect job.
RK: You created a puzzle for me, too!
BTW: I love you both thinking of it as a puzzle.
It's really cool to hear, because we’ve talked in the past about how you just trust your illustrators, and this is a perfect example of you trusting your illustrator and them just absolutely hitting it out of the park.
JF: I will say, I've always been a huge fan of Renée. Even before my first book was published over a decade ago, we had art on our walls from her Etsy shop. My oldest, who's twenty-one now, is a huge fan of Renée and has been for a long time.
Renée and I share an agency, so I asked the editor and my agent, “Can we ask Renée?”
I've always wanted to do a book with her. I even told Renée before that I would love to have to partner up with her. I just wasn't at the point in my career where I could ask for somebody specific. But I did, and it worked out.
BTW: Do y'all have a favorite illustration in the book? My favorite is “Dino bore,” because I love any character that's face-planting on the floor in boredom.
JF: That's the funniest one. That gets big laughs when I read it.
I don't know. Do you have a favorite, Renée?
RK: I like the whole beach party scene. There's a glow party and then they have s'mores.
“Dino bore” was very fun to draw. I tried to flatten one side of the character as much as possible to really play up the boredom.
JF: I want to know where the puppy came from. I love the puppy, but that was not something that I put in the book either. That was something you added.
RK: I felt like inserting another character gives you an opportunity to have a bit of an extra storyline. The puppy is trying to convince the main character to do her chores.
JF: The puppy is sort of the parent in some ways. And because the puppy's there, you can get multiple emotions because you see how someone else is reacting to the main character. That addition takes the book to another level.
RK: Plus, everybody loves puppies.
BTW: Every hero needs an animal sidekick.
You've spent this much time thinking about dinosaurs. Do you have a favorite dinosaur? Were you a dinosaur kid?
RK: Were you, Josh? I was not.
JF: I loved going to the children's museum in Boston, and every time, I would get one of those tiny, plastic dinosaurs.
I think I'm a Triceratops person.
RK: I like drawing the Triceratops because they have a very cool shape.
I don't know if I have a favorite, but I liked the Brontosaurus because of the long neck that you could use as a slide.
You mentioned the tiny, plastic dinosaurs. That's what I actually used for reference! I kept them on my desk the whole time I was working on The Dino Door. Even though they were super small, you could rotate them and see how their body looked from different angles.
BTW: You'll be going on tour for this book soon! There are events that you'll both be at, and some of your stops will be at indie bookstores…
JF: We're going to be at An Unlikely Story in Plainville for the book launch. Then we're going to be at Book Ends in Winchester. Then we're going to Ten Trees Books in Natick.
This is the first time I've been paired with an illustrator who lived in the US and was east of Texas. I’ve had several in Europe, a couple in Singapore, several on the West Coast, and one in Texas. I've only done an event, I think, three times with my illustrator in the last 10 years, so this is exciting for me!
RK: It's exciting for me too. A lot of the authors I worked with have been West Coast or Midwest.
JF: We've been to each other's events, though.
RK: I used to bring my daughter when she was really little to all Josh’s. When his first book came out, we were there.
JF: I remember being at Blue Bunny Books in Dedham, where you had Orangutanka — that was before I had books. And you were at Porter Square Books for one of my books.
We're very lucky to have so many independent bookstores in the Boston area. The whole Northeast, I think, is pretty flush with them. There are great independent bookstores all over the country, of course, but every other town has one in Massachusetts. And we're getting new ones all the time!
BTW: It's really cool to hear that y'all just keep showing up at each other's events and now you get to do one together.
RK: We have a really great community. It's small and everybody knows everybody. A lot of us work alone on our books, so it's just great to see everybody and know they’re our people.
JF: We did an event together at Whitelam Books in Reading the week that Renée signed the contract, so we got to share that we were doing this book together there for the first time.
BTW: Why don't you tell me a little bit about the role of books and indie bookstores in your life? Or if you have a favorite indie bookstore memory, you could share that.
JF: My favorite thing about independent bookstores is really the booksellers. Like Renée mentioned earlier, they are our community. If you're working at a bookstore or visiting a bookstore as a customer, you’re the kind of person that I want to be around.
Obviously the books are important, but the people will give you the best recommendations for those books. They know what books that they carry, why they carry them, and they can help you find the right books for you.
RK: Gosh, I could jump right on that and be like, “Okay, that's my answer too.”
I've been to so many independent bookstores and had so many lovely events. Even when not a lot of patrons show up, the booksellers are always so nice and are such big cheerleaders for what we do.
Recently, I was at a brand new bookshop called The Book Shop of Needham. For the first time, I had a family come in with a couple of my books to have them signed. They had been reading my books It's Fall and It's Winter, and I was there for It's Spring.
It just felt so nice to have a conversation with them. They had two little kids. The husband was a lawyer and the wife was a dentist, and they were telling me they have dinner conversations about my books and what's going to come next.
That is just like the coolest thing ever to think about. Life is so busy, but there are parents who are reading to their kids every night, and they enjoy the books. Then the owner, Hayley, joined the conversation and it just was such a really great back and forth.
JF: I've been to The Book Shop of Needham too. They just opened in February, and Hayley knows her community already. She knows the people. She doesn't even have to ask what books the kids like.
RK: My answer was kind of long, but it was very emotional for me. I was driving home and I was like, “Wow, this is just such a great feeling.” You spend so much time working in your own little bubble alone, it's such a gift to be able to be around people who enjoy books.
BTW: Is there anything else that you'd like to share with our members?
RK: I just want to say thank you. It's such an honor to have this feature, and I feel very lucky to be a part of it and to be recognized that way.
JF: Yeah, thanks to all the booksellers who have enjoyed reading this book, and have supported it, and are excited to bring it to their readers and patrons.