The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary (2016) is a middle-grade novel in verse by high school teacher, freelance journalist, and poet, Laura Shovan. The story follows 18 students in Ms. Hill’s fifth grade who describe their final year of school and their attempts to keep their beloved Emerson Elementary from being demolished. The diverse group of students tells their individual stories in different poetic forms. Shovan explains the verses are “persona poems” written in the first-person voices of the characters. In addition to the impending loss of their school, the students face individual challenges of grief, homelessness, family conflict, language barriers, and crises of self-identity. As the year progresses, the students learn more about each other and discover their voices. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary won the Cybils Award in Poetry and was an Arnold Adoff Poetry Award for New Voices Honor Book in 2018.

Emerson Elementary is an older, run-down building. It needs paint, the gym floor is cracked, there is low enrollment, and some parents grumble that the school’s focus on teaching character instead of working to improve test scores is misplaced. At the end of this school year, Emerson and the neighboring Montgomery Middle School will be bulldozed, and a supermarket built in their places. But Emerson is the school most of the students have attended their whole lives. For many, it is an important constant in their lives, while others are excited to go to a newer, better school.

For their final, grade-level project, Ms. Hill has the class write a book of poetry for the school time capsule. Ms. Hill has a history of activism. She plays folk songs while the students write and has a picture on her desk of herself in the 1970s, marching for women’s rights in Washington, DC. If the school closes, there are rumors Ms. Hill will retire. Ms. Hill supports the students’ efforts to find their unique voices, come together as a community, and fight for their beliefs.



Each of the students’ poems features the date, a descriptive title, the author’s name, and a thumbnail drawing of the student. The book is divided into four sections, marking the different quarters of the school year. Over the course of the novel, the students describe their personal lives and interactions with each other in the context of school events, from Picture Day to the spring musical.

A poem from Edgar Lee Jones opens the novel. Biracial, Edgar thinks he is already a poet. He describes his love for his grandfather, his family’s history fighting for the Union in the Civil War, and his own fight to save Emerson. Norah Hassan moved to the United States from Jerusalem and misses her grandfather and the smooth sound of Arabic. Norah, who wears a hijab, is bullied until she makes friends with Shoshanna. Norah feels like an American when she participates in the student council election.

George Furst runs for class president, campaigning with the goal of saving the school. Since George’s father left, school is one of the only consistent things in George’s life. He believes that he can show his father that some things, like the school and their family, are worth working to keep.



Rennie Chieko Stein comes from both a Jewish and Japanese background. She doesn’t like the idea of everyone splitting up and going different directions. Sloane and Sydney Costley are twins, but their personalities are opposite. Sloane loves fashion and feminine things and is at first thrilled that their school might become a mall. Sydney, a tomboy, is not sure who she is, or what she wants to be. The sisters have their ups and downs but remain best friends.

Gaby Vargas writes in Spanish and a fellow student, Mark Fernandez, helps translate her poems to English. Gaby loves to sing, and Mark enjoys playing the guitar. As the story progresses, Gaby’s English improves, and she helps draw Mark out of his shell. Mark’s father recently died, and Mark is struggling with his grief. Mark joins a band for the talent show with Tyler LaRoche, Jason Chen, and Ben Kidwell. Ben is creative and outgoing. Jason “Seuss” Chen enjoys incorporating Shakespearean dialogue and jazz into his poems, and Tyler is a new kid. At first, Tyler has trouble fitting in, but he adores Ms. Hill and finds everyone very welcoming.

Other students include Hanna Wiles. Hannah’s mom is in the army, and Hannah has a mean girl attitude toward some of the other girls. Hannah eventually comes to realize that “Losing our school is like / losing home, the place / where everyone understands you.” Shoshanna Berg is Hanna’s “yes” friend until she finally stands up for herself. Rennie Rawlins also decides to stop being meek. Rajesh Rao has the opposite problem; he is overeager. He finds a new friend in Newt Mathews, an Asperger’s student. Brianna Holmes thinks they should all save Emerson, instead of discarding it. Brianna is homeless and knows that used things still have value. Katie McCain’s mom oversees the supermarket development project. Katie earns her mom’s respect when Katie stands up for her beliefs.



The students petition the Board of Education, organize a poster protest, and even attend the public Board meeting where they give speeches and sing protest songs, but they cannot stop Emerson from closing. They can keep one brick wall, for their time capsule. They paint a mural of their class on their wall. Bulldozers park outside the school as teachers pack up and the students say goodbye to each other.

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary contains a resource section describing the characteristics of the different poetic forms used in the book. The forms include acrostics, free verse, haiku, limericks, sonnets, rap, senryu, Fibonacci, and more. Shovan offers suggestions on how readers can write each kind of poem. The book also includes a glossary of literary terms.