Business first, then a poem. First, Tabatha Yeatts, you are the winner of the NITA’S FIRST SIGNS book giveaway! Congratulations! Second, I am heading to the ILA conference this weekend. Look for a post later this afternoon with details about my panel session with MG authors Tricia Springstubb, Karina Yan Glaser, Janet Sumner Johnson, and […]
Laura's Blog
Thursday, 19 July 2018
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
Welcome, readers. We’re going on a field trip today! Don’t worry, there are no planes, trains, or automobiles involved in this trip. To join me on Louisiana’s Bayou Teche, all you need to do is open the pages of a book. We have two tour guides to the plant and animal life, the sights and […]
Thursday, 12 July 2018
Hi, friends and poets. Happy Poetry Friday! A few weeks ago I went to a friend’s book launch. I’ve blogged about YA author Kathy MacMillan before, when her debut novel SWORD AND VERSE published. (Read my post about SWORD AND VERSE here.) Kathy’s latest book is something completely different: A board book story that teaches […]
Wednesday, 11 July 2018
I’m on the road today, heading back to Maryland from NerdCampMI. One of the best parts of NerdCamp happens on Day 2 in the afternoon, nErDCampJr. That’s when the kids arrive and have mini-sessions with authors. Because my new book, TAKEDOWN, is about a boy and a girl on a competitive wrestling team, it is […]
Tuesday, 10 July 2018
It’s my second year at nErDCampMI and I’ve been having a blast! My favorite thing about this event is that authors and educators are learning together — sharing our best practices, concerns, and experiences with connecting students and books. As promised, I am posting the slide presentations for both Day 1 panels I participated in. […]
Thursday, 21 June 2018
Greetings and salutations, friends. Happy Poetry Friday! This week, I’m celebrating the launch of my second book for children, TAKEDOWN. (Read a review at the Nerdy Book Club.) I think of this novel as a friendship story set in the world of youth wrestling.It’s told by two sixth graders: Mikayla, who wants to be a wrestler […]
Monday, 18 June 2018
It’s time to say goodbye to Northfield Elementary, friends. Last week was our poetry celebration and tomorrow is the last day of school. Our third grade poets wrote list poems based on a model from Naomi Shihab Nye, odes to their favorite places, and retold fairy tales. At the celebration, I get to see the […]
Thursday, 14 June 2018
Hi, Poetry Friday friends. Welcome back to my series of posts from Northfield Elementary’s third grade poetry residency. It’s day two of our fractured fairy tale poems. In the last post, I described the beginning of our workshop. Today’s I’m sharing the brainstorming worksheet I use for this lesson. The key to this poem is […]
Tuesday, 12 June 2018
Hello, poetry friends! Welcome back to Northfield Elementary School. Today, the third graders are sharing some of their fractured fairy tale poems. This is an exercise in point of view. We started the workshop by gathering in groups, each assigned to a classic fairy tale. The students brainstormed a list of characters in, for example, […]
Sunday, 10 June 2018
Tomorrow is the poetry celebration at Northfield Elementary School. The student poets are welcoming family and friends for a reading and poetry tour of the five third grade classrooms. I’ve been doing an elementary school workshop on odes for many years. This time around, I swapped out my usual model poem and got these poets […]
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.
