An award-winning, big-hearted time capsule of one classs 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. Hills fifth-grade class
has plans for you.
Theyre 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 Childrens Book of the Year
An ILA-CBC Childrens Choice
Nominated for the Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice Award, the Wisconsin State Reading Association Childrens Book Award, the Rhode Island Childrens 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
Genre: Children's Fiction
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. Hills fifth-grade class
has plans for you.
Theyre 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 Childrens Book of the Year
An ILA-CBC Childrens Choice
Nominated for the Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice Award, the Wisconsin State Reading Association Childrens Book Award, the Rhode Island Childrens 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
Genre: Children's Fiction
Used availability for Laura Shovan's The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary