Hardy School student wins national writing contest thanks to dancing monkey

Matthew Karofsky, a third grader at Hardy Elementary School in Wellesley, has won  the February prize of the national Exquisite Prompt writing contest sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based Reading Rockets and AdLit.org. The  contest features monthly writing challenges inspired by 18 authors and illustrators participating in the Exquisite Corpse Adventure, a new serial story conceived by the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance that’s unfolding on the Library of Congress website, www.read.gov. Third and fourth-grade students at Hardy learned of the story, and the related writing challenge, during their library classes.

Matthew’s entry, a fable titled “The Monkey and the Giraffe,” was chosen among work written by students nationwide in grades 3-5. Matthew wrote the fable based on a prompt by children’s author Shannon Hale. Matthew, who is eight and three-quarters, loves to read.

“All of this writing came from lots of the books that I’ve read,” he said. “I’m really into informational and fantasy books, which are kind of like fables.”

Matthew’s story is about a dancing monkey who works hard at his craft. The monkey’s performance is interrupted by a giraffe who tries to compete, but whose performance literally falls flat. Matthew’s work will be published on the Reading Rockets and AdLit.org websites and he will receive a collection of books. His name will also be entered into a grand prize drawing for an author’s visit to his school via Skype.