Genre:
Children’s Stories
Website:
Social Media:
Facebook
Facebook: Storyteller Harriet Cole
Instagram
Bio
Harriet Cole is an almost-native New Mexican — she was born in Wisconsin but arrived in New Mexico at the age of six weeks when her father began working at the Los Alamos (then) Scientific (now) National Laboratory. After growing up in Los Alamos, she began a career that consisted of “a little bit of everything” from Traffic Engineering Technician (yes, she fixed traffic lights), to reporter for a small weekly paper, to section musician in a number of community orchestras in Phoenix AZ. During this time, she taught herself the craft of writing by acquiring an impressive pile of rejection slips.
Finally she discovered oral storytelling and soon not only a professional storyteller but an adjunct instructor at the South Mountain Community College Storytelling Institute. All this storytelling was inevitably connected with writing and Harriet finally realized she was telling a collection of Scandinavian folktales that were perfect for tweens – a little on the weird, wonderful and sometimes even disturbing side. Fifteen Pounds of Muscle and Bounce was published by the Small Tooth Dog Publishing Group early in 2021, right after Harriet moved back to New Mexico from the Phoenix area.
She now lives in Cedar Crest, New Mexico where she continues to write and to tell stories.
Books
Title: Fifteen Pounds of Muscle and Bounce
Publisher: Small Tooth Dog Publishing Group, 2021
Fifteen Pounds of Muscle and Bounce is a Storytelling World Honor Award-winning collection of Norse folktales chosen to appeal to kids from 9-13 who still appreciate the magic of folktales but are also ready for something darker than “happily ever after.” There’s cat in the book who loses it’s head by eating too much. And a young man who wins a princess by herding rabbits. There’s also an old couple who come to a bad end, all because of their porridge.
As a storyteller who has worked in a multitude of 5th through 8th grade classrooms, I can vouch that this set of stories is guaranteed to elicit laughter, amazement and even deeply satisfied cries of “eww” from my listeners and readers
