Artistic and Educational Philosophy
Kristen’s work stems from a career spent teaching and a lifetime spent loving children. She believes that every child should be understood and nurtured, especially in moments when life brings growing pains and confusing new challenges. As both a teacher and a mother, she has observed that when children make mistakes, it is because they are working — through trial and error — to solve a problem that they may not yet fully grasp. Kristen wants her work to help children feel understood, to foster self-reflection, and to pave an approachable path to encourage them to learn and grow. Her stories are designed to challenge children while also supporting them, to instill in them a love of words and ideas, and to highlight for them the joyful moments in everyday life, even when there are bumps in the road.
Kristen’s work holds value for adults as well by reminding them of exactly how those little challenges can feel from a child’s perspective. Children don’t come with a how-to manual, and students’ parents often asked Kristen “how do I talk to children so that they will listen to me?” While every situation is different, Kristen believes that she often got the best results—as a teacher and as a parent herself—by listening, with a goal of understanding what each one uniquely perceives and experiences.
Based on her work in education and curriculum design, Kristen’s books are also designed to link to common core curriculum — the educational standards in effect across the United States.
Kristen’s work holds value for adults as well by reminding them of exactly how those little challenges can feel from a child’s perspective. Children don’t come with a how-to manual, and students’ parents often asked Kristen “how do I talk to children so that they will listen to me?” While every situation is different, Kristen believes that she often got the best results—as a teacher and as a parent herself—by listening, with a goal of understanding what each one uniquely perceives and experiences.
Based on her work in education and curriculum design, Kristen’s books are also designed to link to common core curriculum — the educational standards in effect across the United States.
About the Writing
With these goals in mind, many of Kristen’s stories feature youthful animals and children as they try to make sense of the people, events, and humorous dilemmas that make up their world. They explore — from the child’s perspective — life’s little challenges like anger, overconfidence, envy, and insecurity. Using subtleties in the text, combined with expressive pictures, her work is designed to help children infer characters’ thoughts and emotions and work through these conundrums thoughtfully and at the child’s own pace.
Kristen’s writing style is characterized by a subtle poetry and musical flow, and energized by a love of words—Kristen loves to play with words and to savor their sounds and meanings.
Kristen’s writing style is characterized by a subtle poetry and musical flow, and energized by a love of words—Kristen loves to play with words and to savor their sounds and meanings.
About the Illustrations
In her art, Kristen works to showcase the dynamism of her characters — both human and animal — by focusing on the beauty of color, life, and especially humor in their movements and facial expressions. She hopes to capture this humor in expressive glances, the twist of a paw, or the point of a toe, so that readers can see it too and laugh.
