The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary

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