Happy Hanukkah, Poetry Friday friends. Our family’s celebration is bittersweet this year. Although 2020 had its joyful moments, we also experienced several transformative losses during the pandemic. Last week, we had to say goodbye to one of our dogs after an unexpected medical emergency. Many of you knew our beagle, Rudy, through my Poetry Friday […]
Laura's Blog
Thursday, 10 December 2020
Thursday, 12 November 2020
Hey, poets and readers. Quick post this week. I am working on a guest article for the website Reading Rockets. It’s going to be all about books … and dogs. Of course, I have to include a few dog poems. During the pandemic, Sam (the Schnauzer) and Rudy (the Beagle) have been joining me on […]
Friday, 30 October 2020
Hi, poets and poetry lovers! We have two big events coming up in the next few days. Tomorrow is Halloween. (Check out this Baltimore Sun article about how Halloween was celebrated during the 1918 flu pandemic.) And, of course, Tuesday is Election Day. After the 2016 presidential election, I signed up for election judge training. […]
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 […]
Friday, 9 October 2020
Welcome, Poetry Friday friends. My friend Michael Rothenberg introduced me to a new-to-me poet, Virgil Suarez. Michael is a poet, founder of 100 Thousand Poets for Change, and art-collaborator with me on the monster poems I’ve shared in the past. I visited Michael in Tallahassee, Florida in January — a few short weeks before the […]
Thursday, 1 October 2020
It’s October, Poetry Friday friends. Poet Irene Latham is on my mind this week. I hosted a stop on her THIS POEM IS A NEST blog tour, and even tried writing a nestling. You can read that post here. It’s October first as I write this, and Irene + Octo = her wonderful book, Love, […]
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. […]
Thursday, 24 September 2020
Hi, Poetry Friday friends. Jone Rush MacCulloch is hosting us this week at her new blog! Please click through to find poetry posts from around the kidlitosphere. I am guest posting at Ethical ELA this week with a food poetry prompt. Thanks to Sarah Donovan and to all of the educators — including a few […]
Thursday, 17 September 2020
Happy Poetry Friday and Shana Tovah! This evening marks the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The greeting “Shana Tovah” means “good year.” If you’re curious, you can read more about this phrase and the significance of Rosh Hashanah in Jewish culture in this article. It wouldn’t be a festival without special foods. […]
Thursday, 10 September 2020
Happy Poetry Friday, everyone! Now that A PLACE AT THE TABLE has launched, I am working on a new middle grade novel. This one is in verse (at least for now). The floods that destroyed the historic street near our old house is part of this book’s story. Also incorporated into my WIP — memories […]
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.
