November 2016

This is going to be a difficult post, friends. It’s time to have a serious talk about girls and compliance. Let’s be clear right up front. On one level, this is about a dear friend’s book and how a review of that book got it wrong. Conflict of interest, I know. But I’m determined to […]

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I’m celebrating the launch of a friend’s book this week: THE PRINCESS AND THE FROGS by Veronica Bartles. It’s a Frog Prince retelling about being clear about what you want and who you want to be. Because Veronica is in one of my critique groups, I was lucky enough to watch this adorable picture book develop […]

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Monday, 14 November 2016

Heading to NCTE this weekend? So am I. My first job after graduate school was teaching high school English. I was a member of the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, but I never got to a national conference. Educator friends have told me how good it feels to be surrounded by people who […]

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Friday, 11 November 2016

This week, I turned to Lucille Clifton’s words for comfort. Her poem “my dream about time” captures the frustration, fear, and anger so many women are feeling right now. my dream about time By Lucille Clifton a woman unlike myself is running down the long hall of a lifeless house with too many windows which […]

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Tuesday, 1 November 2016

Hello from Klamath Falls, Oregon! In real life, I’m on the West Coast to do some school and library visits with my good friend Janet Sumner Johnson, author of THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE OF THE PB&J SOCIETY. But online, I’m guest-blogging this week at poet and children’s author Jacqueline Jules’s blog, Pencil Tips: Writing Workshop […]

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Laura Shovan

Laura Shovan is the author of the award-winning middle grade novel, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary. Her second book, Takedown, is a Junior Library Guild and PJ Our Way selection. Look for A Place at the Table, co-written with Saadia Faruqi, in 2020. Laura is a poet-in-the-schools Maryland.

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