I’ve always loved novels in verse, and lately I’ve been exploring more and more of them; they seem to be a hidden genre of storytelling that is lovely, insightful, and satisfying to my poet’s heart.
Plus, I’ve written a novel in verse. I’m trying to explore and better support my fellow poets.
For the last several months, I’ve been sort of touring through the well known and little known titles that are novels in verse. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, by Laura Shovan, was one of the most spectacular of my recent reads.
I don’t know if it’s because I have a son who recently graduated fifth grade and will be going into middle school next month or if it’s simply that this was a story well told (it was, and it’s likely both), but I could not stop thinking about this book for days after I’d finished reading it.
It was a phenomenally executed novel in verse, with so many compelling characters (each student in a class of fifth graders is given several poems throughout the book) and their everyday realities and anxieties and home happenings captured in verse. Each poem told a story about the student who had written it, and yet all the collected poems told a larger story about an elementary school getting closed down for demolition and the students who wanted to protest that future. It was amazingly intuitive and brilliant.
Here are three things I liked most about it:
- The poetry. This book was like nothing I’ve ever read, a combination of structured poems and free verse—but what stood out most about each of the poems was the characterization captured within. It was so well done I’m misting up even as I write these words.
- The emotions. Because the poems were written by different students and sort of shuffled up throughout the book, they subtly showed the struggles of each student: some were dealing with parental divorce, conflicts with parents, conflicts with friends, all the things fifth graders deal with in their lives. There was tension and a story told in every poem, however long or short.
- The concept. Not only were these kids finishing up elementary school, which is a huge transitional time in a kid’s life, but they were also trying to save their school from being torn down—so double the transition (they would never again see this place where they’d spent six years of their lives; that’s a difficult thing). It really was brilliantly done.
Shovan just came out with a new novel, Takedown, which is not written in verse but contains her poetic language and her insightful character development. It will need a post on its own.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll feel so many emotions reading The Last Fifth Grade that you’ll never forget it. Truly a classic that should be read aloud to every fifth grade student so they feel seen and heard and understood. Thanks, Shovan, for giving me this gift to read with my son.
The above is an affiliate link. I only recommend books that I personally enjoy. I actually don’t even talk about the books I don’t enjoy, because I’d rather forget I ever wasted time reading them. But if you’re ever curious whether I’ve read a book and whether I liked or disliked it, don’t hesitate to ask.
