Everyone's The Smartest

Everyone’s the Smartest is a collection of 60 poems bound together with the central theme of school. Each poem takes the reader into the mind of a child as they recount charming and often humorous musings about elementary school life. Some poems tackle the challenges of sitting through class without getting distracted, getting in trouble for bad grades on pop quizzes, and how to scratch your head without ruining your hairdo. Others highlight the things kids love most about school like winter snowball fights, hanging out with friends, favorite lunch time meals, and awesome teachers. The colorful illustrations by Ulla Saar capture the whimsical nature of these delightful poems. The author, Contra, says, “every illustration works as an extra verse of its poem.” 

This collection includes tons of bonus content such as interviews with the author and illustrator, Estonian vocabulary lessons with pronunciation tips, lists of cool places in Estonia with information about the area, a sneak peek behind the scenes of the translation process from Estonian to English that gives readers a glimpse into which Estonian references were changed and why, and some prompts written by the translators so that kids can create their own poems! This collection is sure to delight children ages 6 and up and will make adult readers nostalgic for their elementary school days. 

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