Collierville teen shares talents with community | Collierville Independent

Storytelling has impacted cultures all over the Earth for centuries ranging from dinner-table conversation to public speaking forums.

Capturing these tales developed much later as humans progressed, learned, and understood the value of the written word.

Collierville resident, Joisinga Noble began storytelling in the traditional way sharing stories with her family at four years of age.

Now at 15, Joisinga has written a series of books, leads storytime for area children and has plans to share stories for many years to come.

Her series, A Small Mouse with a Diary, chronicles the lives of a family of mice who live in Joisinga’s home. There are currently four books in the series, which she began writing at age ten.

The Diary of Martha Mouse, her first book, was a 5,000-word story created for the Young Writers Program with the National Novel Writing Month in 2010.

“My other books are better, since I was only 10 when I wrote the first one,” said Joisinga.

She even converted a couple of her mouse diary books into children’s books with her own illustrations.

She has led five story times at the Morton Museum this year and one at the Collierville Library as well. Not only does Joisinga read her stories, she brings along her guitar.

“I typically sing a song written to a tune that the children already know. The songs go along with the theme of that storytime,” said Joisinga.

Along with guitar, she plays the piano and even the bagpipes.

“This is a great chance to promote my band,” she said, “Wolf River Pipe and Drums. We’re made up of all ages and play at lots of different venues and participate in parades.”

When asked what she likes to do for fun, Joisinga enjoys it all. She sews, cooks, crafts (been scrapbooking since age three) and even has a blue belt in karate. Not to mention, writing and music is in the fun category as well.

“We are very happy to have Joisinga involved in the story times,” commented Morton Museum Director Ashley Carver. “She is extremely talented and we appreciate Joisinga and her family’s support of the Museum.”

Joisinga will be back at the Morton Museum, 196 Main Street, on Friday, Sept. 25 from 10:30-11 a.m. She said her theme will most likely be “Animal Habitats” and plans on reading one of her children’s books titled Amelia Pied Piper.

Her books are also available at the Collierville Library.