Kristin grew up exploring every indie bookstore near Asheville, NC. She's currently earning her master's degree in Library and Information Science with a Youth Studies concentration at SJSU...which is sorta like Extra Majoring in Children's Lit.
She'd love to give a TED Talk about how we're living in a new golden age of children's literature, if only TED would call. When she's not lost in a book or two or three, she can often be found singing and acting on stages across the Bay Area.
This story of a partially deaf young woman coming of age in the rural mountains of northern New Hampshire is absolutely stunning. Owl has found safety and happiness living with her aunt and uncle and helping with their maple syrup business, but that safety is shattered when a young man comes to town and brings his brutal past with him. French’s gorgeous writing evokes the nature-focused, gentle pace of the town itself - until it suddenly doesn’t, hurtling toward the suspenseful ending. ~Kristin
A slow-burn manor mystery that delightfully skewers the snobbish upper class of modern England, as well as ghost stories. Knives Out meets The Big Lebowski meets Ghost. Trust me on this one! ~Kristin
What a beautiful second chances story with a time travel twist. I love everything about Clementine’s journey - through time, through mourning a precious family member, through reinventing herself and looking toward the future. ~Kristin
One of the best fantasy books that I’ve read in ages! It feels like a brand new fairy tale. Parry’s writing reminded me of Patricia McKillip, Tamora Pierce, and Neil Gaiman. ~Kristin
If you love or have ever loved Calvin and Hobbes, then this book is for you. This isn’t so much a book as an experience - a joyous celebration of language. It nails the heraldic language of epics like Beowulf and The Iliad, while placing it in a modern context so fun that you forget why reading those epics in high school felt kinda boring. I cackled the whole way through while also shaking my head in awe of the wordplay. ~Kristin
One of my favorite fantasy novels ever. I mean, who wouldn’t want to live in a world of magical libraries, in which books of sorcery are living creatures with their own personalities and needs, but they can also transform into dangerous monsters, and thus librarians must be armed with swords? I want to be a sword-wielding librarian so badly it HURTS. ~Kristin
If you’re looking for your next small-town-with-creeping-dread novel, look no further. The rural Canadian town of Solace captured my heart immediately with its three interconnected characters from different generations, each broken in their own way. This book beautifully captures the epic in the mundane, tracking how small actions and griefs can reverberate to others, but also how small mercies and kindnesses can bind people together. ~Kristin
At long last, the Agatha Christie/Jane Austen mashup of my dreams! This one’s a must-read for Austen fans with a loving sense of humor, and/or anyone who loves to curl up with a cozy British country house murder mystery. I need a film adaptation of this book immediately. ~Kristin
Just stunning. The latest Exhibit A to prove that yes, graphic novels are a valid form of literature. What a gorgeous, thoughtful story placed in an unusual setting. Perfect for any fan of the sweet love story in Heartstopper! ~Kristin
If David Sedaris (one of my favorites) decided to write a novel about the bookselling business, it would be this darkly comical treat. This one’s a must-read for anyone who loves bookstores and wants an honest and hilarious trip behind the scenes! ~Kristin
This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. Brooks-Dalton has created a work that’s suspenseful and thoughtful, hypnotic and elegiac. It faces the consequences of climate change head-on, through the chronicle of one family, with a fascinating heroine at its center. One of my top reads of 2022. ~Kristin
It takes a whole lot for a new book about vampires to impress me. This one impressed me. Maybe because it’s also a beautiful exploration of the many stages of grief, and how far we’ll go to stave off an unimaginable loss, and how effectively loss can isolate people only to ultimately connect them again. This book made me smile and cry in the best way. ~Kristin
You’ve never read a book quite like this one. Vanessa Zoltan gives us a new template for interacting with our favorite books in a work that’s part memoir, part literary criticism, part exploration of what spirituality means in a secular society, and part meditation on generational trauma (she’s the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors). Vanessa is one of my favorite public intellectuals, and an amazing human being. ~Kristin
I loved this creepy and pitch-perfect thriller - I couldn’t put it down! By including the child’s drawings as a crucial piece of the plot, Jason Rekulak makes Hidden Pictures not just a quick read but a unique one as well. He even manages to inspire some contemplation of heavier themes, with your skin crawling all the while. ~Kristin
One of my favorite novels of 2021! This one’s a must-read for Jane Austen fans (and I’m difficult to impress in that regard). But it’s ALSO for anyone looking for a story of a young woman discovering herself, distinguishing her identity from her family, and breaking free at last. The novel honors Austen’s trademark wit while also giving poor Mary Bennett from Pride and Prejudice the justice she deserves. --Kristin
This book makes me cackle - especially the last page. It makes a perfect gift. Why should fun board books be limited to kids? --Kristin
Completely unique in tone and imagination. This is the kind of book that I used to stumble upon, and fall in love with, in the fantasy section of the library when I was a kid. If that description speaks to you, then this book is for you. --Kristin
I’m in love with this beautiful, tightrope-walking miracle of a book, which will appeal to adults as much as advanced younger readers. A 21st-century homage to Charlotte’s Web, it tells a simple, powerful, often hilarious story. Alice, a young rabbit, leads a group of wild animals in upstate NY as they secretly help the small organic farm that they call home to thrive, after well-meaning but clueless hipster farmers buy the farm. --Kristin
"What's your favorite book?" is an impossible and cruel question, but when pressed to answer, I usually reach for this one. It's the most hopeful post-apocalyptic novel you'll ever read, a meditation on the lasting power of art and what makes us human. --Kristin
This novel, with its impeccably-imagined world and its characters who leap off the page, is a masterwork of contemporary fantasy for YAs and adults alike. I read it every November. By the time you finish, you will swear you could hop on a boat to the island of Thisby if you really tried. (Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle trilogy is pretty sacred to me as well.) --Kristin
Erin Entrada Kelly is my favorite middle grade author! Here she explores the lives of three siblings trapped in a house with their parents’ fracturing marriage in the weeks leading up to the 1986 Challenger space launch, which will impact each sibling differently. Bird, the middle sister, is a heroine for the ages - hopeful and heartbreaking and so very real. --Kristin
My top 2021 read. John Green might be better known for his novels, but here he crafts essays with his trademark insight and razor-sharp wit. Often laugh-out-loud hilarious and perfect for fans of David Sedaris, Allie Brosh, Bill Bryson, and Jenny Lawson. --Kristin
A Neil Gaiman children's story for all ages. This reimagining of The Jungle Book, about the ghosts in a graveyard who decide to raise a human boy named Bod, remains my favorite of all his books. And that's truly saying something! --Kristin
My favorite book of 2020, the one that got me through the worst of COVID lockdown. Reading this lovely, sweet, and often humorous story feels like giving yourself a big hug. --Kristin
A unique read that rewards multiple re-reads. Renkl creates short meditations/reflections that marry her own family history with her observations of the natural world surrounding her Southern home. Fans of Mary Oliver's poetry will enjoy these short, poetic essays. --Kristin
As decades of Harry Potter fandom can attest, few things are more fun than a good old-fashioned fantasy adventure book and, I promise, this is one of the best out there. You will root for the hilarious and unlikely team-up of warrior heroine Wish, wizard hero Xar, and all of their magical friends. --Kristin