Genre: State by State

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.”

Student: | Grade Level: 10th Genre: State by State | Date: April 25, 2012

ROBERT C

The author for the state of Alaska is Paul Greenberg, a critic and editorialist for the New York Times. As he travels through Alaska, Greenberg provides his story and goes into fine detail to describe to the reader what he sees. At times, the story seems promising. When Greenberg lands in Alaska, he encounters a Grand Aviation dispatcher who tells him, “If you’re here to write an article, you’ve got a lot of material.” The reader is filled with hope. What will they learn about the largest state in the United States … what does “a lot of material” refer to? Unfortunately, Greenberg does not pursue Alaska’s scope and variety any further; instead, he chooses to focus on the two friends that he meets in Alaska. Greenberg goes simply through his journey in Alaska: his conversation with Jac upon arrival, his meditations on Alaska’s Yu’pik Eskimos and nature, his fishing journey with Jac’s friend Ray’s family, his conversation with Jac after his return, and his departure from Alaska. This essay seems like a casual run-down of events relayed by Greenberg to the reader – in fact, it seems more like “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty than an informative essay.