Mrs B's Story Time... with a twist!

Mama Bear is speaking in a Southern accent and Meggie the Dog's tail is wagging and the smell of fresh-baked cookies is in the air. The house is spotless, the stereo is high-end and this is how June Cleaver's America has been reconstructed in the Arizona desert.

Playing Cleaver and Mama Bear is Carri Blake-Brekke, who types 100 words a minute, bakes killer brownies with or without nuts and is making a career out of what came naturally to her as a mom: telling stories.

In January, Blake-Brekke was bored and running a transcription service out of her Peoria home when she had an inspiration: take the stories she had always told her children - Goldilocks, for instance, with a Goldilocks who talks like a Valley girl - and take them to local schools. She adopted a new persona, "Mrs. B," and began writing children's stories her sister, Jodi, would illustrate. Then she'd put music to them, burn a CD at home and have a package to sell.

"You go into these schools and get to have an impact on students' lives," Blake-Brekke said. "You're lucky to be able to do that with your own child. To do it with a roomful of them means you're phenomenally lucky and blessed."

The songs she sings are age-appropriate. To the 4- and 5-year-olds, she tells fairy tales and sings songs about growing up and about farm animals. To the older kids, she sings about boogers and the runs, as well as growing old - a song inspired by what she saw when she looked in the mirror at the hairdresser's one day and was shocked at whom she saw. It's not necessarily educational music - "it brings out the kids in everyone, even the teachers," Blake-Brekke said.

After a few successful shows at schools, Blake-Brekke began cold-calling local bookstores. Borders took her up on her offer, and she began appearing there. She's appeared at Borders stores in Minneapolis-St. Paul, as well and will be doing readings in libraries in Minnesota and Missouri in the summer. Lately she has been doing readings at local malls.

"Everything's timing on this was, it's almost like this whole business has been in someone else's hands from the beginning."

Her songs all have different content, but the theme is usually the same: Don't grow up so fast. It's a theme that she stresses to her own children - kids who, by the way, still sit at the table and dip their homemade cookies into 1 percent milk with Mom.

"It's supposed to be fun," Blake-Brekke said. "Brittany (her 17-year-old daughter) hardly wears a stitch of makeup. She goes to school looking like a kid. She only has a short time to be a kid. This is it. She has the rest of her life to be an adult, but only this short time to be a kid."

Reach the reporter at judd.slivka@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8097.

'Mrs. B' tells stories
	Photo: Brian A. Barbour Carri Blake-Brekke, who is known to her audiences as "Mrs. B," sings a song to children and parents at Webster's World of Reading in Desert Sky Mall in Phoenix.	By Judd Slivka The Arizona Republic Oct. 22, 2002

	Mama Bear is speaking in a Southern accent and Meggie the Dog's tail is wagging and the smell of fresh-baked cookies is in the air. The house is spotless, the stereo is high-end and this is how June Cleaver's America has been reconstructed in the Arizona desert. Playing Cleaver and Mama Bear is Carri Blake-Brekke, who types 100 words a minute, bakes killer brownies with or without nuts and is making a career out of what came naturally to her as a mom: telling stories. In January, Blake-Brekke was bored and running a transcription service out of her Peoria home when she had an inspiration: take the stories she had always told her children - Goldilocks, for instance, with a Goldilocks who talks like a Valley girl - and take them to local schools. She adopted a new persona, "Mrs. B," and began writing children's stories her sister, Jodi, would illustrate. Then she'd put music to them, burn a CD at home and have a package to sell. "You go into these schools and get to have an impact on students' lives," Blake-Brekke said. "You're lucky to be able to do that with your own child. To do it with a roomful of them means you're phenomenally lucky and blessed." The songs she sings are age-appropriate. To the 4- and 5-year-olds, she tells fairy tales and sings songs about growing up and about farm animals. To the older kids, she sings about boogers and the runs, as well as growing old - a song inspired by what she saw when she looked in the mirror at the hairdresser's one day and was shocked at whom she saw. It's not necessarily educational music - "it brings out the kids in everyone, even the teachers," Blake-Brekke said. After a few successful shows at schools, Blake-Brekke began cold-calling local bookstores. Borders took her up on her offer, and she began appearing there. She's appeared at Borders stores in Minneapolis-St. Paul, as well and will be doing readings in libraries in Minnesota and Missouri in the summer. Lately she has been doing readings at local malls. "Everything's timing on this was, it's almost like this whole business has been in someone else's hands from the beginning." Her songs all have different content, but the theme is usually the same: Don't grow up so fast. It's a theme that she stresses to her own children - kids who, by the way, still sit at the table and dip their homemade cookies into 1 percent milk with Mom. "It's supposed to be fun," Blake-Brekke said. "Brittany (her 17-year-old daughter) hardly wears a stitch of makeup. She goes to school looking like a kid. She only has a short time to be a kid. This is it. She has the rest of her life to be an adult, but only this short time to be a kid." Reach the reporter at judd.slivka@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8097.