"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."
--Josh Funk, whose book with illustrator Renée Kurilla, The Dino Door (Simon & Schuster BYR), is the May/June Kids' Indie Next List pick, in a q&a with Bookselling This Week