Old newspaper used to work well for kindling. But fewer people get their newspapers delivered in print. Used paper grocery bags could work.

Also proper organization of the wood, I have a wood stove (had one growing up as well) and learning how to build a little pyramid or log cabin like structure around something flammable helps a lot to circulate air allowing the fire to spread to larger pieces of wood. EDIT: old newspaper is good, I often use "junk mail" as long as it doesn't contain any plastic, where I am stores will still send out some paper flyers.

Don't discount using dryer lint and left over cooking grease as a starter. I have a woodstove at the house, and I use both to get it going. Left over bacon grease on a few paper towels with dryer lint around/on top of it, and a few smaller pieces of soft wood like pine. Larger/heaver wood on top and behind it like oak. Make sure to also pre-heat the exhaust vent pipe, get a draft of air going.

Hadn't thought of dryer lint, with three kids I have that in abundance!

> Make sure to also pre-heat the exhaust vent pipe, get a draft of air going.

How does one do that?

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If you can start with a hot fire and sufficient kindling, you don't always need to do it as a separate step, but otherwise you can burn crumpled newspaper, use a hairdryer or heat gun, or sometimes even a large candle. If the room temp is higher than the outside, sometimes just a fan is enough.

This stuff is amazing: https://www.fatwood.com/

Two little sticks of that, and you can mostly skip the super-thin kindling in favor of sticks.