By:Robert Remler
75th anniversary weekend features autors and artists
North High School's famous novelist returned to Valley Stream and, not surprisingly, told students a secret last week. Many of Alice Hoffman's 13 novels written since 1977 are based on magical secrets.
The sixth recipient of North High School's Distinguished Alumni Award returned here for the first time in 30 years last Friday to receive her award and to participate in a celebration on Friday of the school district's 75th anniversary and an authors and artists day on Saturday. Hoffman, class of 1969, who grew up on Cypress Drive in Franklin Square now makes her home in a suburb outside of Boston. Before graduating from North, she attended the Willow Road Elementary School.
"If you dream it, you can be it," she said. "You can be anything you want to be."
If not for a North High School guidance counselor, Hoffman would have dropped out of school at 16. "I seriously doubt anyone has achieved worse grades," she said. By her own admission, her years at North High School were unfocused. She had little interest in subjects such as math and science and left no clues that she wanted to be a writer. She described herself as "a secret reader and writer."
Thirty years ago, "it was not a plus for a girl to be smart or ambitious," she said.
Hoffman described her return to Valley Stream as "weird." "I feel that it is a whole lot different," she said. But, in hindsight, she did achieve her dreams here. Writing novels was "exactly" what she wanted to do when she grew up in the area, but never told anyone. Success came early and on the first try. At the age of 21 she wrote and sold her first novel, "The Drowning Season."
She was accompanied by her husband, Tom Martin, and their 13 year-old son, Wolfe.
Martin, who met his wife when she taught at SUNY Stony Brook, remains not at all surprised by her prolific ability to write novels and screenplays. He described his wife's writing process as "dreamlike until it's all done." His habit is not to read her work until the book is finished. "I am surprised at how the works constantly keep getting better," he said.
Wolfe said he reads most of his mother's books. "She writes when we are in school," he said. "I think she is really good," he said. Soon a comparison might be made between mother and son. Wolfe recently completed his first novel.
Melanie Daniele, a former classmate and member of the North High School Alumni Association, recalled Hoffman as quiet. "Sort of a loner," said Daniele. "When we got together we had fun." Daniele recalled Hoffman as being "different" from other classmates. Daniele, the mother of a teenage girl attending North High School, described Hoffman's books as "very real, yet magical." One book reviewer described Hoffman's work as 'haunting,' another said she writes 'with great wisdom and compassion.'
Schools Superintendent Ronald Valenti was one of many who addressed students in the gymnasium. He told students that Hoffman's achievements demonstrated that the future holds opportunities for everyone. "There is a future for you," he said. "You can achieve that success by striving everyday."
John Ciotti, (R-North Valley Stream) a 1970 North High School graduate, said he remembered Hoffman as quiet and reflective. "Qualities that seem to be a good foundation for a writer."
"I think everybody has a story to tell from an architect to a lawyer," said Ciotti. "Alice choose to tell hers through the written word and obviously she does it well."
Phil Masi, a 10th grader at North, was eager to comment after Hoffman's talk. "Practice makes perfect," he said. "Her talk showed that if you do the right things then good things will happen."
Kristin Hecker, an 11th grader, left the gymnasium with optimistic thoughts. "This shows that anyone can achieve what they want." Hecker said that her desire was to be a model.
