THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY

A cast of narrators gives voices to the 18 students in Miss Hill's fifth- grade class. As they write daily poems over the course of the school year, a picture emerges of each personality and of the pros and cons of keeping the run-down school open or replacing it. Over the course of the year, thanks to Miss Hill, the students come to understand the power of the First Amendment and find their own voices. Listeners get to know the students as individuals through their poems. One student is reticent to commit to paper, another is sharing a home with a sick grandfather, another is a twin with an unwelcome nickname, and yet another the class president. By year's end, one senses the coming together of the whole group. The narrators shine at expressing the emotions in the poems. A.R. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2017]