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.