My friend Aliza Werner sent me the most wonderful book: What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking by Tina Oziewicz, illustrated by Aleksandra Zajac. This sweet book about emotions was translated from Polish to English by Jennifer Croft.
Laura’s Bookshelf
Thursday, 9 February 2023
Thursday, 6 January 2022
Happy first Poetry Friday of 2022! Today, I’m featuring my favorite middle grade book of 2021 — the brilliant (and hilarious, and sad) climate emergency satire, ONE SMALL HOP by Madelyn Rosenberg. Here is an abbreviated description of the story from Goodreads: Perfect for fans of Carl Hiaasen’s classic Hoot, this humorous adventure story set in […]
Thursday, 6 May 2021
It’s Poetry Friday! I have been featuring Asian American authors on my blog as part of the annual #AuthorsTakeAction initiative. In each post, I’ll share a recommended middle grade or YA novel by an Asian American author and a read-alongside poem. Before we get to today’s featured book, though–a quick announcement. This month, on May 18-19, author and poet […]
Thursday, 22 April 2021
It’s Poetry Friday! For the next few weeks, I will be featuring Asian American authors on my blog as part of the annual #AuthorsTakeAction initiative. In each post, I’ll share a recommended middle grade or YA novel by an Asian American author and a read-alongside poem. Before we get to today’s featured book, though–a quick announcement. This Sunday, […]
Thursday, 15 October 2020
Happy book birthday to HOP TO IT: POEMS TO GET YOU MOVING, by the creators of the Poetry Friday anthology series, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong! There are 90 children’s poets with work in this collection. I’m excited to be one of them. You can read the full list of contributors here. (High five to […]
Tuesday, 29 September 2020
Happy book birthday to Irene Latham! Yesterday was the release date for poet and children’s author (and my dear friend) Irene’s latest collection, This Poem Is a Nest. This book of poems has an exciting concept to wrap your brain around! “We poets spend much of our time nest-building,” Irene explains in the book’s introduction. […]
Monday, 24 February 2020
2020 marks a huge anniversary for me. Ten years ago this month, my first book was published. It was a poetry chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone. (CityLit Press, 2010) Since then, I’ve gone on to edit and co-edit two more books of poetry for adults, write a verse novel for kids, and a middle […]
Thursday, 20 February 2020
Hi, Poetry Friday friends. Are you ready for a robot invasion? I have a new robot friend. Its name is Po-M. Po-M Bot is helping me with this week’s post. We recently received a book from a robot-loving friend, author-illustrator Michael Rex. It’s called FACTS VS. OPINIONS VS. ROBOTS. As an educator, I love this […]
Thursday, 6 February 2020
This week, I’d like to thank Margarita Engle for her activism and advocacy during her term as Young People’s Poets Laureate and beyond. I recently read her sweeping history of Latin Americans in what is now the United States, Dreams from Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems. I shared […]
Thursday, 23 January 2020
Quick post this week, my poetry friends. One of my first reads of the new year was David F. Walker’s fantastic graphic biography, The Life of Frederick Douglass, illustrated by Damon Smyth and Marissa Louise (2019). (Publisher info here.) I’d taken this book out of the library. As soon as I returned it, I went […]
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.
