Genre: State by State

Student: | Grade Level: 10th Genre: State by State | Date: June 21, 2012

LARRY HO

Anthony Doerr, the author of Idaho’s essay, is an accomplished author of books such as The Shell Collector, About Grace, Seasons in Rome, and recently, Memory Wall. His books have been twice a New York Times Notable Book and once an American Library Association Book of the Year. Doerr also is the author of many short stories, which have won the Rome Prize, four O. Henry prizes, and several others. He also has a column in The Boston Globe and less often writes Op-Eds for The New York Times. In Doerr’s career he has developed an interest for science and the natural world. He frequently writes about nature and reviews scientific books. Doerr has also worked and lived in both Africa and New Zealand where many of his stories take place. He is now residing in Boise, Idaho with his wife and two sons.

Student: | Grade Level: 8th Genre: State by State | Date: June 15, 2012

ERIC Z

1996, he wrote and illustrated the famous American award-winning book “Palestine”. Joe Sacco currently resides in Portland, Oregon. When Sacco wrote his story, he divulged both his passion for the state and the state itself. His focus, preferring anecdotal to panoramic, excavates details that infrequently make it to the news or the history books. For example, in Oregon, it rains a lot. It’s rather simple to just say, “Oregon is a beautiful country and it rains a lot”. But the way he tells us that it rains a lot is more indirect. He gives many examples, implying constant showers. For example, Sacco tells us that there is a place that’s full of peril called the Pearl District. He uses an umbrella to protect himself from being jumped. And when he has to walk his awful embarrassing creature, the dog, he sometimes waits 20 minutes when there are clouds in the sky. Sacco also dislikes the heat. And when it’s too hot, his wife, Amalie, would want her tomatoes to receive hard heat for anther five or six days. Sacco thinks that it is unquestionably essential for a good writer to travel in various places and it is also ideal for him to visualize something when he’s walking around.

Student: | Grade Level: 8th Genre: State by State | Date: May 22, 2012

GRACE G

Because Weiland and Wilsey wanted personal stories about experiences with the state, Smith tells about this one illegal adventure to the island she had with her father. She talks about swimming off a boat to the island, which was trespassing and completely forbidden. Not only were they breaking the law, but they ended up encountering a group of sharks, all gathered under their boat. During the time on Ni’ihau, they beachcombed together, finding human bones. The hundred-year-old skulls they found lying around on the beach under the sand were forbidden to be touched because “To touch a bone, especially a Hawaii’an one, disturbs its mana, the life force Hawaiians believe inhabits all things.”

Student: | Grade Level: 8th Genre: State by State | Date: May 16, 2012

HELEN (HANYU) L

The author is persuasive and clever. “I was confused, of course. I’d fallen in love not with this person, but with this place.” This reveals who she is and how she was in love with Vermont, rather than the person that brought her there. Also, “What’s so compelling to me about the mountains? Is it that there’s always somewhere to go? Is it the supramundane perspective afforded by a summit? Is it genetics?” The repeated “Is it …” provokes us to learn all the reasons why Bechdel would stay in Vermont. “I always feel a little out of place, but it’s place, of course, that binds me to these people.” This reveals that the reason she remained is that she truly adores the state, viewing it as more than the people there. Through this, the reader can feel as if Vermont is Bechdel and Bechdel is Vermont, since the place is what keeps her lingering: “…our microclimate, our brief spring-times, the particular contours and declivities of our rural, plural habitat.” The readers feel an invisible bonding among the citizens of Vermont, their unique love for their state, and their independence.

Student: | Grade Level: 8th Genre: State by State | Date: May 15, 2012

HANNAH H

Mr Watt´s Literary Services

The Federal Writers’ project assigned over six thousand American writers, researchers, and others to put together something that would represent America. Each state had a guide, some of which were over 500 pages, composed of essays written on all imaginable topics of that state. Weiland and Wilsey thought that 21st century America needed something similar to the Guide Series, a book that would explain America to the people who lived in it. As Weiland put it in his preface to the book, “despite drive-time radio and the nightly news and the Sunday paper, despite all the books and blog posts, the documentaries and songs, America and the lives lived here remain strangely and surprisingly under described.”