THE DINO DOOR

A youngster finds an inspired way to put off bedtime.

A redheaded, light-skinned child in a green dinosaur costume is having a grand time in what looks like a playroom, tossing around a dino stuffie (“Dino soar”), impersonating a dino (“Dino ROAR”), and so on. Who can blame the kid for not wanting to drop everything to tackle a chore chart (“To do: brush teeth…”)? Chores are, after all, a “dino BORE!” The little one decides to draw a picture of a garden that includes an orange door—might it be a “dino door”? The kid walks through it (it’s that kind of story) and explores a sunny, flower-and-tree-filled land of dinos. Funk is resourceful when it comes to adhering to his self-imposed minimalist rhyme scheme; readers can expect a “dino s’more” before a concluding “dino snore,” which finds the all-tuckered-out kid fast asleep in bed back at home. The idea of a realm conjured by a child as an escape from conditions imposed by a killjoy offstage parent calls to mind Where the Wild Things Are, although Kurilla isn’t trying to be Maurice Sendak. Featuring the cushiony edges and eye-popping palette of a Barney & Friends episode, her cartoony digital art gives readers everything they need to know—a heavy lift in a book with minimal text.

Dinosaurs, rhymes, an obstinate child—what’s not to like?