‘Wee Sing’ Creators Celebrating Two Decades

Everyone dreams occasionally of changing careers. Susan Nipp and Pam Beall actually did it.

Former music teachers, they both began having children at about the same time in the mid-1970s. And because they were searching for something to do that wouldn’t be a full-time commitment, they hatched an idea.

Why not meld their musical talents with their new roles as performers/storytellers/parents? The result quickly became the “Wee Sing” line of books, tapes and videos.

Nipp, a Rogers High School and Whitworth College graduate who lives in Coeur d’Alene, and Beall will present a “Wee Sing” Sing-a-Long Party at 3 p.m. today in the Children’s Corner Bookshop, located in the downtown skywalk at 714 W. Main.

The need for something like the “Wee Sing” series was recognized by both women from the beginning.

“There was a void in the marketplace for the kind of thing we wanted as mothers, a song book to take in a purse, take in the car and be low-priced,” Beall said in a 1995 interview with Spokesman-Review correspondent Lynn Gibson.

At the same time, the two wanted to do as much as they could to preserve the child-themed aspects of our cultural heritage.

“There is really something missing if these old traditional songs are being lost because through them you learn a lot about our heritage,” Nipp told Gibson. “We researched the words and started teaching traditional music to friends, teachers and at universities. We tried to make it accessible and easy.”

It seems to have worked. Twenty years later, Nipp and Beall are going strong. And Children’s Corner co-owners Sudan Durrie and Judith Hamel are only too happy to help them celebrate their two-decade anniversary.

“It is a real pleasure for us to host our longtime friends and colleagues,” says Durrie. “We go back a long way.”

The latest “Wee Sing” book and cassette is titled “GAMES, GAMES, GAMES.” For further information, call 624-4820.

Food for the feminist soul

Carol Lee Flinders, who will read from her new book “At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst” at Auntie’s on Friday (see below), is no stranger to Spokane.

Perhaps best known as co-author of the influential cookbook “Laurel’s Kitchen,” Flinders is a 1961 graduate of North Central High School. Now a resident of Tomales, Calif., Flinders also is the author of “Enduring Grace.”

“In the spirit of ‘Women Who Run With Wolves’ and ‘Reviving Ophelia,’ this book has the potential to change women’s lives,” says Publisher’s Weekly.

“At the Root of This Longing” (369 pages, $21, ISBN o-06-251314-1) is published by HarperSanFrancisco.

Feminist issues

Take special note of Tuesday’s reading/lecture by Naomi Wolf at Washington State University.

Author most recently of “Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood,” Wolf has penned a couple of international best-sellers - “The Beauty Myth” and “Fire With Fire: The New Female Power.”

A graduate of Yale University and a former Rhodes Scholar, Wolf was named in 1994 one of America’s 50 most promising leaders under the age of 40 by Time magazine.

According to a press release, Wolf’s most recent book “reveals the secrets of our coming of age: the sexual games, forbidden crushes, losses of virginity and rites of initiation.”

A reception and book-signing will follow the reading. For further information, call (509) 335-3581.

Looking ahead

It’s weeks away yet, but mark your calendars anyway. The Friends of the Spokane Public Library are holding a new and used book sale on March 20-21. It will be held in meeting rooms 1A and 1B in the library’s downtown branch, 906 W. Main.

For further information, call 444-5312.

The reader board

John Blanchette, Spokesman-Review sports columnist and author of “Welcome to Helmet Night,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

Naomi Wolf, author of “Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood,” will deliver a lecture based on her book at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Pullman at the Washington State University CUB.

Scott Mandelker, author of “From Elsewhere: Being E.T. in America,” will sign copies of his book from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Carol Flinders, a graduate of North Central High School and co-author of the groundbreaking cookbook “Laurel’s Kitchen,” will read from her new book, “At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

, DataTimes