The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan

An award-winning, big-hearted time capsule of one class's poems during a transformative school year. A great pick for fans of Margarita Engle and Eileen Spinelli.
 
Eighteen kids,
one year of poems,
one school set to close.
Two yellow bulldozers
crouched outside,
ready to eat the building
in one greedy gulp.
 
But look out, bulldozers.
Ms. Hill's fifth-grade class
has plans for you.
They're going to speak up
and work together
to save their school.
 
Families change and new friendships form as these terrific kids grow up and move on in this whimsical novel-in-verse about finding your voice and making sure others hear it.

Honors and Praise:

Winner of a Cybils Award in Poetry

Winner of an Arnold Adoff Poetry Honor Award for New Voices

An NCTE Notable Verse Novel

A Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year

An ILA-CBC Children's Choice

Nominated for the Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award, the Wisconsin State Reading Association Children's Book Award, the Rhode Island Children's Book Award, and the Great Stone Face Award (New Hampshire), Lectio Book Award Master List 

"This gently evocative study of change in all its glory and terror would make a terrific read-aloud or introduction to a poetry unit. A most impressive debut." --School Library Journal

"Sure to inspire the poet in all of us, young and old." --Mark Goldblatt, author of Twerp

From the second grade, Laura Shovan has been a writer. She taught high school and worked as a freelance journalist after graduating from NYU's Dramatic Writing Department. She now works as an educational consultant for adolescent learners. She has edited two collections of poetry and is the author of Moutain, Log, Salt, and Stone, which won the Harriss Poetry Prize. Laura and her family live in Maryland, where she has worked for the Maryland State Arts Council as a poet-in-the-schools for many years.

It's her debut novel, and it's a good one. Laura Shovan's website is laurashovan.com, and she can be found on Twitter as @LauraShovan.