Laura Shovan – The Last Fifth Grade Of Emerson Elementary

Laura Shovan’s engaging, big-hearted debut is a time capsule of one class’s poems during a transformative school year. 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.

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.

Awards:
Arnold Adoff Poetry Award for New Voices Honor Book
Cybils Award in Poetry
An NCTE Notable Verse Novel
Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year
ILA-CBC Choices Reading Lists, Children’s Choices
SCBWI Crystal Kite Finalist, Midatlantic Region
Lectio Book Award Finalist

Nominated for:
Massachusetts Children’s Book Award
New Hampshire Great Stone Face Book Award
Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Awards
Rhode Island Children’s Book Award
Wisconsin State Reading Association Children’s Book Awards

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