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Sox journalist, novelist serves as resident author

Date: 6/12/2012

June 11, 2012

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW — Students at the Center School had the unique opportunity to meet and learn the craft of writing from a nationally recognized journalist and author.

Steven Krasner, who spent 33 years with the Providence Journal covering sports, including the Red Sox and earned the Boston Baseball Writers Association's Dave O'Hara Award for "long and meritorious service" in 2010, served as a resident author for three days last week, interacting with students at all grade levels as part of in his "Nudging the Imagination" writing program.

After his long and successful career in sportswriting, Krasner made the transition to writing and publishing children's books and hosting workshops at schools throughout New England as well as other parts of the country.

His published titles include non-fiction such as "Play Ball Like the Pros," "Play Ball Like the Hall of Famers," and "The Longest Game" as well as fiction such as "Have a Nice Nap, Humphrey" and "Why Not Call It Cow Juice?"

"I very much enjoy seeing kids get excited about writing," Krasner told Reminder Publications. "It's just natural for me to be with kids. I'm just a big kid. It was probably a bigger stretch for me to be an adult in the adult world than it is for me to be in the classroom."

Krasner explained that his program's primary focus is on getting children enthusiastic about writing and using their imagination.

"I think what I do is as motivational as it is anything else. I want kids to realize that writing can be fun. It's to show kids that there is a forum for their imaginations and that it's OK to let it fly," he said. "Especially in this video technology era where they're bombarded by stimuli every second, they don't have time to sit back and think and use their imagination. Everyone has a creative muscle and as with any muscle, it needs exercise."

Krasner added that he also offers suggestions to teachers on how they can incorporate writing across the curriculum.

"We need to make sure that we have another generation of creative problem solvers," he said.

Center School Principal Donna Hutton explained that Krasner's appearance was an event sponsored by the Parent-Teacher Organization that keeps with the school's new philosophy.

"We started moving in this direction instead of just one-day assemblies," she said. "The rationale was that we wanted to have something that would have lasting impact. This is something we could sustain long after the author or the storyteller has left us and that's what we're finding is very powerful."

In 2011, the Longmeadow Educational Endowment Research Foundation sponsored a visit by local storyteller Tom McCabe and in 2012, the school decided to build upon that program's success by bringing in an author.

"We did a lot of research on different authors and what attracted us to [Krasner] is that he did both fiction and non-fiction writing and the nature of his workshops, he goes in and talks to the students about how anyone can be a writer and talks about his experiences covering the Red Sox, which of course is going to be a huge motivation for kids this age."

Hutton also cited Krasner's ability to reach several age levels.

"When he talks to the kids, he's doing a different program at each level," she said.

Kindergarteners and first-graders took part in an author storytime with Krasner. The second and third grade classes received individual visits from Krasner where he helped them write a class story.

In fourth grade, he visited each class and had them take part in a "cliffhanger" program in which each class wrote a piece of a story and ended it with a cliffhanger from which the next class had to continue the story. Once finished, the story was read to all of the classes.

The fifth grade learned about non-fiction writing with newspapers being the primary topic of conversation and students had the opportunity to interview Krasner's alter-ego Floyd Flapjacque, a 25-year old superstar baseball player for the New York Yankees, who also happened to be a sky diving, award-winning cake baking certified genius.

Krasner also donated a set of his books to the school's library and 20 percent of any extra book purchases the students made he donated back to the school.

"I think it's incredibly generous to give that amount of money back and we'll put that money right back to the library," Hutton said.

Reflecting on the impact of Krasner's visit on the third day of his residency, Hutton said it had a profound effect on the students.

"They've been pretty excited. There was a buzz before he came and just the fact that he's published is really huge for the kids. To have his book in hand and to take that book and make it part of their personal libraries, that's really big," she said. "He really has a way of engaging and motivating the kids. He's very funny and I think his humor goes a long way with kids this age."



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