Story and photos by Lisa Carolin
This year’s Authors in Chelsea event brought author Helen Frost and photographer Rick Lieder to North Creek Elementary School, author Michael Buckley to South Meadows Elementary School, and author Nora Raleigh Baskin to Beach Middle School.
Raleigh Baskin’s March 14 presentation to Beach students coincided with the student walk out against guns, something she compared to the turbulent events in her own life.
She told students about growing up in the 1960s, and the effects the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Bobby Kennedy, and the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior had on her life.
“Suddenly the world changed dramatically and was a very divided place,” she said. “There were protests in the street. Does that remind you of anytime?”
Students immediately responded that it reminded them of right now.
Raleigh Baskin talked about her book Nine/Ten: A 9/11 Story and how 9/11 changed the students’ history.
“Think of all the new words it added to your vocabulary like terrorism, Taliban, ground zero, homeland security, and xenophobia,” she said.
Raleigh Baskin has written 13 novels for young readers, and sixth-graders at Beach are reading her latest novel, Nine/Ten: A 9/11 Story, about four kids from different parts of the U.S. and how their lives are affected by the events of 9/11.
During her presentation to sixth-graders in the media center, Raleigh Baskin told students that most of her books are about her life.
“When I was your age, I was getting in trouble,” she said. “When I was in sixth-grade, my teacher told me there was another way I could express myself and that was by writing novels. I felt so much freer.”
Raleigh Baskin has taught creative writing to kids and adults for more than 15 years and lives with her family in Connecticut.
The goal of Chelsea District Library’s Authors in Chelsea presentations is to encourage students to explore the art and craft of writing to better read and appreciate literature.
