Sleuthin’ and Readin’ : ‘Ghostwriter’ draws kids into a mystery and the language

“It’s done in a fun way,” says Blaze Berdahl, 11, explaining how “Ghostwriter” encourages kids to read and write.

The new PBS series, which features an original hip-hop musical score for each of its 42 episodes, helps kids read as they help solve a mystery. The show, aimed for kids between 7 and 10, gets a sneak preview Saturday on the Fox network.

The serial-style show solves a mystery over the course of four shows, during which a team of six kids are given tips by the mythical Ghostwriter, who can only communicate through writing. While the written words are always read aloud, the device demonstrates how the kids need to read to solve the mystery.

“It’s really cool, actually,” says Blaze, who plays the rap-writing Lenni. “He takes letters off certain things, like paper, and hangs them around--and through animation, one word is turned into another.”

“He can also make words from billboards or marquees,” adds Todd Alexander, 15, who plays Rob, the quiet loner.

Blaze, Todd and 14-year-old Sheldon Turnipseed (Jamal) believe their peers will enjoy the show.

“It’s exciting and hip and fun,” Sheldon says. “Kids are in the limelight, and it shows kids who aren’t dependent on other people, kids who are getting things done.”

“We’re really normal,” Blaze says, “not like most kids on television. I would watch it.”

“Kids will like it because it doesn’t talk down to them,” Todd says. “We don’t say, ‘This is how you read’; we don’t teach it, we show it. It’s incorporated into the show naturally.”

“Ghostwriter” is a nearly four-year effort of the Children’s Television Workshop in conjunction with the Literacy Project; it is the biggest educational project for CTW and PBS since the 1969 debut of “Seasame Street.”

“This is the first project that CTW has done which has simultaneously released a television show and the ancillary material, including books and magazines,” says executive producer Liz Nealon. “Where (“Sesame Street”) profiled younger kids’ needs, we want to give older kids motivation towards writing and reading.”

As part of extensive research, four episodes were shot last summer and used as tests on a diversified group of 2,000 children in six key sites, including Los Angeles.

The children responded positively toward Ghostwriter, as long as they could read his messages, says Nealon. “So when you consider that there are third-graders in the audience, certain things are important, like how long we left the message on-screen, for the level of their reading development.”

Nealon and Tina Peel, the show’s project director, equate the way the ensemble cast will work each week as “a kind of ‘L.A. Law’ for kids,” with the cast taking turns at being featured prominently in the 10 mysteries (and two specials) that will be solved this season.

After four intensive months of auditioning, Nealon--who came to the project as one of the original MTV writer/producers--found her cast: Turnipseed, Berdahl, Alexander, Maytana Morales (Gaby), David Lopez (Alex) and Tram-Anh Tran (Tina), who range in age from 9 to 15 and hail from the New York area, where the show tapes.

An example of a “Ghostwriter” mystery is one that is a favorite of the cast: Who is sending a reclusive movie star threatening letters?

Guest stars include film director Spike Lee and actors Sam Jackson (“Jungle Fever”), Mark Linn-Baker (“Perfect Strangers”), Valerie Perrine and Patricia Barry (“Sea of Love”).

In conjunction with the show is a community outreach program.

After-school guides designed for latchkey kids, as well as 350,000 classroom materials, will be distributed among teachers. The program includes print information for children whose only print material at home is often the guide to television listings.

Through public television, libraries, 4-H groups, YMCA, schools and Girl and Boy Scouts, “Ghostwriter” will distribute to second-, third- and fourth-graders 20 million copies of the companion magazine “Ghostwriter.”

Books with tie-ins will also be available and priced from 99 cents to $2.99.

As Sheldon says, “We have a purpose--to motivate kids to read--and it’s a good purpose.”

“Ghostwriter” premieres Saturday at 10:30 a.m. on KTTV and XETV before moving to its regular PBS time periods: Sundays at 6 p.m. on KCET and KPBS, starting next week, and Fridays at 4:30 p.m. on KVCR, starting Oct. 16.