A Door Is to Open - by Kyo Maclear (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Welcome through the doorway of this picture book . . . about doors! From a Caldecott Honor author and a New York Times Best Illustrated artist comes a celebration of entrances, thresholds and portals -- and all the endless possibilities they can lead to! Includes a beautiful fold-out page and textured case.

Some doors may give you a nervous, fizzy feeling . . . and also make you glad you came.

There are so many kinds of doors: swinging doors and sliding doors, screen doors for feeling the night air, revolving doors for going around and around. Doors that open into . . . anything you can imagine! A birthday party, a shipwreck on the salty sea floor, a fairy's tiny home, a slide into a room full of pillows! Or even the fantastical future ahead. Where will the doorway of this picture book lead? The only way to find out is to turn the page and go through . . .

In a playful ode to Ruth Krauss's A Hole Is to Dig and Remy Charlip's essay A Page Is a Door, this imagination-sparking picture book from an award-winning duo will be welcomed by anyone who is entering a new phase of life -- and invites readers of all ages to embrace the marvelous possibilities that wait for them behind every new door.

Review Quotes

One of Indigo's Best Kids' Books of 2026
A CIBA Booksellers' List Best Kids' Books of 2026 -- Top Pick

"Maclear's succinct, effective second-person narration adds a welcome interactive feel to the text. . . . Morstad's evocative art helps make these more complex concepts easy to understand for a young audience." --STARRED REVIEW, The Horn Book

"Whimsical, wonderful, and altogether magical. A doorway to doorways and beyond." --Kirkus Reviews

"In a whimsical picture book study that's positioned as an homage to Ruth Krauss's A Hole Is to Dig and Remy Charlip's essay 'A Page Is a Door, ' prior collaborators Maclear and Morstad embrace doors as portals to play and possibility. . . . In dialogue with some children's literature greats, the creators meaningfully highlight doors as metaphors for openness." --Publishers Weekly

"In this quietly evocative picture book, the humble door becomes a lens through which childhood curiosity and courage are explored." --School Library Journal

"Kyo Maclear used the words of author Ruth Krauss to trigger this picture book about doors, beautifully illustrated by Julie Morstad. . . . My personal favourite is the closet door 'for hiding' in which Morstad shows a child devouring a book behind a louvred door that lets in just enough light." --Montreal Gazette

"Reminiscent in tone and style of the classic A Hole Is to Dig, these two brilliant creators deftly sweep readers into the infinite wonder and potential that awaits behind doors of all kinds." --Lynn Becker, Shelf Awareness

"Morstad's unrushed art is an expansive complement to Maclear's writing, showcasing everyday doors, suspenseful thresholds and portals to imaginary realms rich with colors and vivid imager." --Booklist

"They are brilliant individually, but each book by Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad together is an open door. . . . The composition of the book can only be called perfect." --Imaginary Elevators

"Through poetic language and imaginative visuals, it captures the quiet excitement of possibility. . . . [A Door Is to Open] is a reminder that every door, no matter how small, holds the potential to lead somewhere unexpected." --GTA Weekly

About the Author

KYO MACLEAR is the author of many books for children and adults. Her writing has been translated into eighteen languages and published in over twenty-five countries, and has garnered numerous accolades, including a Governor General's Literary Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award for her body of work for young people. Her picture books include Noodles on a Bicycle, which was named a Caldecott and Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, and, alongside illustrator Julie Morstad, It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book; Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli; and Julia, Child, a Governor General's Literary Award finalist. Kyo lives in Toronto, Ontario.

JULIE MORSTAD is the author and illustrator of a number of acclaimed picture books, including A Face Is a Poem, winner of the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize, and Time Is a Flower, which was a New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Book, winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize, and a finalist for a Governor General's Literary Award, among other honors. She has also illustrated many other stories for children, such as Kate DiCamillo's The Puppets of Spelhorst. Julie lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.