Combining her storytelling ability with her expertise as a licensed clinical social worker, Elizabeth Klose Hartford, of Woodstock, has created a series of children’s books to help children learn how to cope with scary experiences.

Her family and experiences as a social worker inspired her to try her hand at writing for children.

Born and raised in the Hudson River Valley of New York, Hartford grew up on a farm with sheep, horses and other animals. “I was in 4-H, and we showed them at the county fair,” she said.

She attended Cornell University, and after assisting a fellow student who was having personal difficulties get support, Hartford decided she had a knack for helping people. After graduating from Cornell she earned a master’s degree in social work from Boston University in 1977.

From there, she moved to Maine where she worked as an outpatient therapist in Augusta. She met her husband, Lucas, and they lived in Litchfield for 16 years. They often traveled to western Maine to hike, she said, and decided they wanted to live in the area so they wouldn’t have to drive as far. In 2018 they moved to Woodstock.

It was while packing up their things in Litchfield that the thought of writing a book came to her.

“I was cleaning my house out,” Hartford said. “There was a family antique wood chair. There was also a stuffed bear that my husband’s mother had made.”

She began thinking about how she was the third in a line of Elizabeths — her grandmother and mother also shared the name. She thought about how her mother had struggled with addiction.

“My mom had just died from COPD due to cigarette addiction,” she said. “Still grieving, I wondered if Mom would have lived longer had she learned healthy coping skills at a younger age.”

The combination of those issues, along with her county fair experiences, came together as a story idea that would feature the family names. She could have bears, all named Elizabeth, go to the summer county fair to be shown at the Stuffed Animal Pet Show, and also blend in some skills that might have helped her mother as a child, Hartford said.

The idea stayed with her. “I couldn’t ignore it,” she said.

So, she wrote the story titled “The Bear and the Chair” such that the six bears were put in a box with the antique chair to travel to the fair. She fashioned the tale to incorporate a scary situation for one of them, nicknamed Isabelle, then wove in a role for the antique chair to help her through it.

The bears found the chair to be a nuisance for them in the box as they bounced along in the back of the truck. Isabelle became very anxious as her companions loudly complained about it. To everyone’s surprise, the chair begins speaking in a reassuring tone, and then teaches Isabelle the “Four Square Breath” technique to calm down — a slow breath in, hold, and slowly exhale, all to a count of 4. Isabelle tries it and notices her body begins to feel calmer. Ultimately, the bears all arrive at the fair in a more cheerful mood, ready to take on the day. They also learn, from their interaction with the chair, not to judge others too quickly.

At the end of the book Hartford included a section on a “Bear Skill,” in which she explains in more detail for young readers how to do a “Four Square Breath.”

Hartford initially contacted some publishing companies about her book, “but I realized it was more important to me that the book’s message be shared and taught, and self-publishing was the easiest means to that end,” she said.

She then wrote two more books, continuing the fair story into that night and then the next day. Different bears were featured in each, but in each case faced a stressful situation. One was helped by the memory of the bears’ family dog, while the other was reassured by the presence of a sparrow. The books were titled “The Bear at the Fair: A Fright at Night” and “The Bear on Show Day: A Friend Flies In,” respectively, and again incorporated a Bear Skill explanation at the end.

In the latter book, the sparrow and the bear “co-regulate,” Hartford said, with the very active sparrow injecting energy into the sad bear, and the bear providing a calming presence for the bird.

Since publishing the third book last year, Hartford continues to share all the books and messages, “so children of every age can learn stress management skills and take time to physically be together and connect the old-fashioned ways.”

Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of her books can email Hartford at elizabethhartford2@gmail.com.

Besides her writing, Hartford is manager of Stephen Memorial Hospital’s food pantry program in Norway where she also uses her social worker skills to provide a holistic approach to serving pantry clients.