Happy New Year, Poetry Friday friends! I am a member of the middle grade ARC sharing group, #BookExpedition. We are 12 educators — classroom teachers, librarians, and one visiting teacher (me) — from all around the U.S. We request Advanced Reading Copies of middle grade books from authors and publishers, then share them within the […]
Laura’s Bookshelf
Thursday, 2 January 2020
Tuesday, 28 May 2019
You know how there are friends in your life who you’re fond of, but who drift away for one reason or another? And then, years later, serendipity intervenes. You reconnect and that friend becomes an important person in your life. For me, that person is debut author Naomi Milliner. We’ve known each other for more […]
Thursday, 13 December 2018
Welcome, winter wordsmiths! Early birds, thanks for letting me know that Mr. Linky was misbehaving. He’s all fixed and ready for your links. I was at the National Press Club Author Night and Book Fair in Washington, DC last month and had the great good luck to bump into an old friend, Jona Colson. Jona […]
Thursday, 15 February 2018
Happy Poetry Friday! Thanks for visiting the Poe House with me last week. I pulled a random name from the comments and Jama Rattigan is the winner of the Poe Keepsake Journal. Congratulations, Jama! Before I get to this week’s post, I want to thank Arnold Adoff and the Virginia Hamilton Conference. Last week, I […]
Thursday, 14 December 2017
Happy Poetry Friday! I recently added a line to my email signature. Along with my title (poet in the schools) and the titles of my children’s novels (The Last Fifth Grade, Takedown), you will now see “Currently reading: —” listed under my name. Publicly sharing what I’m reading is a practice I learned from educator […]
Thursday, 12 October 2017
Big news, Poetry Friday friends! Today is the cover reveal for my latest middle grade novel, Takedown. This prose novel is about two middle school wrestlers, a boy and a girl, who are *not* happy when their coach makes them training partners. Curious? Stop by Nerdy Book Club for a sneak peek. This month, I’m […]
Thursday, 5 October 2017
Autumn is here at last! Goodbye, sweating buckets at the Baltimore Book Festival. Hello, sweaters and crunchy leaves. I’m cozying up with a pumpkin spice latte (just kidding — flavored coffee is truly frightening) and some spine tingling stories. The first novel on my October Boo!shelf is Shannon Parker’s ghost story, The Rattled Bones. Here […]
Monday, 3 April 2017
Thanks to everyone who joined me at the Nerdy Book Club last night. What began as an idea to encourage people to teach poetry during National Poetry Month grew into a full-on event when my Nerdy friends invited me to post the live video on their Facebook page. Wow! In case you missed it, I’ll […]
Thursday, 23 February 2017
Happy Poetry Friday. It’s been a while since we visited my bookshelf, friends. In Bookshelf posts, I pair a middle grade or young adult novel with a poem, to be read and enjoyed side by side. Earlier this month, my friend Jeff Giles visited Maryland as part of his book tour. Jeff’s debut novel, THE […]
Monday, 14 November 2016
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 […]
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.
