KIDS LEARN, TEACH FUN OF NEWSPAPERS.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy

The kid stuck out her hand and flashed a million-dollar smile, sizing me up.

``You Mr. McCarthy?'' she asked.

``Yes,'' I answered, shaking her hand as a circle of her friends began to close in on me. ``Who are you?''

``Hannah Reff,'' she said. ``I'm playing you.''

OK, I can handle that. A girl playing me. I've got two girls of my own. They've been playing me like a yo-yo for years.

From my right, another hand shot out. ``My name's Chantene Berger,'' a little voice said. ``I play the jerk who stole the ball from Travis (Martin).''

Another hand came at me from the left. ``I'm Nicole Ippoliti,'' said a little voice. ``I play Travis.''

Standing next to Nicole, another little girl stuck out her hand. ``I play Travis' mom,'' said Jennifer Sills.

The introductions over, the girls all giggled and ran off to get ready for their roles in the play, ``The Living Newspaper.''

And I was left sitting there in the auditorium of Portola Middle School in Tarzana on Tuesday morning thinking it is indeed a lucky man who gets to see a newspaper column that he wrote - about the adult bully who stole the foul ball out of Travis Martin's glove at Dodger Stadium this summer - come alive on stage.

Particularly when it's a stage at a school for kids 11, 12, 13 and 14. Their own stage in life is one of the most important ones for newspapers: the stage when readers will either acquire the newspaper habit of their parents and grandparents or go totally off the deep end into MTV-land.

Paul Richardson knows that. So, each day, this fine drama teacher at Portola brings in copies of the Daily News and Los Angeles Times, and he has his classes pick out some of the headlines and stories that catch their fancy.

From these, the kids have written ``The Living Newspaper.'' Many of the skits in the play are about absurdities described in a newspaper, like the woman who had $36,000 sewn in her underwear and the Sherman Oaks Beanie Baby Bandit.

But many others are not. There are stories about the poignancy of life that kids should read in a newspaper, so they can feel and react to the real world around them.

There are stories, Richardson says, that contain serious social commentary.

Stories like the column I wrote about the two young women working at McDonald's who still visit the grave once a month of a former customer to leave behind some McDonald's toys and tell him how much they miss his friendship: the grave of LAPD Officer Steve Gajda, shot to death by gang members last New Year's Eve.

Stories about the death of LAPD Officer Fil Cuesta and the grieving family he left behind.

And stories on right and wrong, like the column on Travis Martin.

Stories that touched these 40 kids in Richardson's class - made them want to perform them on a stage and bring the newspaper alive.

``Your story on the jerk stealing the kid's baseball really made me mad,'' Hannah said after the play. ``That's why I wanted to play you. I'm glad you wrote it.''

I smiled. ``I'm glad you read it,'' I said. ``A lot of kids today don't read newspapers and didn't read this one.''

Hannah and her friends gave me a look that said they understood, but didn't know why a lot of their classmates passed on reading a newspaper.

``But we read them,'' said Chantene Berger, who played the baseball-stealing jerk. ``They're fun.''

Ah, from the mouth of babes. Golden nuggets. Newspapers are fun.

From the corner of the room, Richardson smiled. Since the school term began in September, he's been drumming this theme into the heads of his students.

``Fun, sad, neat, interesting - it's all there in the newspaper,'' the teacher said, as his drama class got ready to perform the play again for a few more classes filing into the auditorium.

Hannah and her friends climbing back on the most important stage for newspapers today.

The school stage.

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photo

PHOTO Columnist Dennis McCarthy sits with students in the cast of a school play.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News