Book Review: The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, by Laura Shovan

Why I Picked It Up: This novel-in-verse was part of our Newer Choices in Young Adult Lit session and I think I can blame it on Jessica!

Why I Finished It: Poetry is definitely not one of my favorite things to read, but I do love novels-in-verse for a few reasons: 1) they’re a quick read. Let’s be honest, that’s why our students love them too! There are fewer words on the page and they can have the accomplished feeling of getting through a book much more quickly – and bonus, they’re reading poetry too! 2) Having a more traditional storyline that develops over the course of the book is slightly less intimidating than trying to analyze and extract the meaning of a single poem. Notice I said “less intimidating” not “easier.” This book definitely requires higher-order thinking and reading skills, but in the context of the story, it doesn’t feel as challenging.

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary is the story of 18 students in the last fifth-grade class that will graduate from Emerson Elementary. The school has been condemned and will be torn down at the end of the year, and there are talks of turning it into a grocery store. As you can imagine, with 18 different students, there are 18 different perspectives on the impending event! Some want to save the school, some are all for tearing it down. For every day of the school year, the book contains a poem from one of the students as part of a time capsule project. It’s a bit overwhelming at first to have 18 different voices in one book, but as you get to know the characters and put the pieces of the story together, it gets more comfortable to read.

Who I’d Give it To: The sweet spot for this is probably upper elementary, but it would be a great read for elementary through middle school students.

Integration Ideas:

Theme

As the class deals with the adversity/change of losing their school, they all deal with the loss in different ways. Some essential questions you might ask students:

• How are people transformed when dealing with grief?
• How do relationships develop when there are major disruptions? 

Perspectives and Characterization

There are 18 kids in the last fifth-grade class, which equals 18 different stories and 18 different perspectives around a single event. Each student feels differently about the building being demolished for different reasons. 

In one camp, Hannah Wiles wants to go somewhere better and so is glad it will be torn down. She is running for class president. So is George, who is in the “save the school” camp. For George, saving the school is a metaphor for saving his family (his parents are splitting up).

There are dynamics between Hannah and Shoshanna, who feels like maybe if she helps Hannah win the election, Hannah will leave her alone. There’s Gaby, who finds it easier to write in Spanish and then translate. There’s Jason, the class clown of sorts, who writes with a more lighthearted rhyme scheme. Norah is excited about participating in an election that makes her feel more American, even though she loves to wear her new sky-blue hijab to school. There’s Newt, who has Aspbergers. There’s also the teacher, Ms. Hill, who is apparently pretty old and unfashionable but has a mystery surrounding her.

Information about the characters is gathered in small pieces through inference, so the bigger picture comes together slowly. Since there are so many characters to keep track of, it’s a good idea to start some kind of character scrapbook or journal, either collectively as a class or individually. Even author Laura Shovan kept a color-coded spreadsheet while she was writing!

Each poem reveals information about not only the student who wrote it but also their relationships with and perspectives on other students.

Ideas:

• Use a Popplet, or some other kind of mapping tool, to create a central location for keeping track of what we learn about each character and relationships between them. Work on it as a whole class and use the map as a reference!
• Keep a Google Slides presentation as a class, with each student assigned a specific character to pay close attention to, and add new information as it becomes available.
• Use emojis to chart a specific character’s journey or changes through the book. Check out this template from CtrlAltAchieve.
• After reading the book, complete a Bio Cube or a Trading Cards for the characters.

See if you can match the characters to their pictures on the front of the book so you can have a visual!

Once you get to know the characters, take it deeper by asking students to think about how the characters would respond in certain situations that would be familiar to the students, but that the characters might not have specifically faced in the book – sitting in the lunchroom, being late for the bus, trying a new sport.  This forces the students to get into the character’s shoes and apply their knowledge of character traits/feelings.

Also, check out our Character Trait/Feeling Cards!

Civil Rights

The students identify Ms. Hill in a picture at a museum as participating in the Women’s Rights march in Washington D.C. As they learn about the civil rights movement, they start to ask themselves: “what can a group of kids do to make a difference?” 

Read about other kids who are making a difference:

• These 6 Kids are Doing Amazing Things For Their Communities (HuffPost)
• Alex’s Lemonade Stand
• Rachel’s Challenge

Civil Rights Text-to-Text Connections

• The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist, by Cynthia Levinson (picture book biography)
• The Port Chicago 50, by Steve Sheinkin (narrative non-fiction)
• Belle, The Last Mule at Gee’s Bend: A Civil Rights Story, by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Bettye Stroud (picture book with a unique perspective)

Research resources:

• Student Discovery Sets from Library of Congress – Check out the set on segregation.
• America’s Library from Library of Congress: Check out the section on activists and reformers.

Poetry

Each of the 18 students writes in a different style of poetry. Depending on the number of students in your class, assign a certain number of characters to each student to analyze based on their poetry. Have the students consider the following points:

• Are there repetitive sounds? Are they soft or harsh?
• Is the poem rhythmic or choppy?
• Is there symbolism in the poem?
• What figurative language is present?

Have them recite, alone or with partners, one of the poems with the personality of the character. It’s a great way to sneak in the listening and speaking standards! Also, the students can study the writing craft in order to add voice to their own writing.