Check out The Great Martini, A fun and touching story about Sam, a lovable but far from a perfect magician who learns that the greatest transformation is transforming feelings of caring into action to help another human being. The Great Maritini, as an exclusive Amazon e-book. Please click here to get your copy today.

RWYK Celebrates National Poetry Month with Laura Shovan,  An Award-winning Poet & A Children’s Book Author

Hello, all, and Happy National Poetry Month 2019!

To celebrate, we are joined by poet and author Laura Shovan.  Our host Jed Doherty talks to Laura about her debut middle grade novel, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, her love of poetry, the inspiration for writing middle-grade novels and much more.

Overall, this is among the longest episodes in the Reading With Your Kids library, if you ask us. It is refreshing, thoughtful, funny, and certainly entertaining. Be sure to tune in and inspire the poet in you!

About the Author

Laura Shovan’s debut middle grade novel, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, won several awards, including NCTE 2017 Notable Verse Novel and Arnold Adoff Poetry Award for New Voices honor book. Laura’s second children’s novel, Takedown, is a Junior Library Guild and PJ Library selection. Look for her next book, A Place at the Table, co-written with author/activist Saadia Faruqi, in 2020. Laura is a longtime poet-in-the-schools in her home state of Maryland.

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.

https://amzn.to/2HWBIFx

In this episode of the Reading with Your Kids Podcast, you’ll hear:

• Introduction to Laura Shovan and her debut middle grade novel, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary
• What inspires her to write for the middle-grade audience?
• Writing in multiple points of view.
• How verse novelists use traditional (and untraditional) poetic forms to help tell a story or create characters.
• The emotional cost to kids when a school closes and what adults can do about it?
• Laura’s experience of writing about a diverse school
• What is she currently working on, where can people find her online and much more…

Thank you, Laura, for joining us and for sharing your wonderful novel with us!

Jedlie’s Magic Circus is fun for the whole family. Please visit www.jedlie.com to find out how to bring this inspiring show to your community.