Chris Van Allsburg was born on June 18th, 1949 in Grand Rapids Michigan. As a child Chris’ family moved three times, although always staying within Grand Rapids. The last house he lived in with his parents and sister was a Tudor style house in East Grand Rapid, which would later become the inspiration for the cover illustration of The Polar Express. Although Chris never studied art in high school he got accepted to the University of Michigan college of Architecture and Design as an art student. It was there that Chris would meet his future wife, Lisa Morrison, a fellow art student who was also obtaining her degree in education.…
Jasmin Darznik is the most affected by state-led nationalism by having to renounce her citizenship to the United States government. Tan Le is the most affected by state-seeking nationalism by serving as a representative for immigration rights in Australia. When Darznik arrived in the United States, her parents had bought a house and owned a small hotel business in California. After leaving the U.S. for a summer to visit Iranian relatives in Germany, the family would soon return to find that they were no longer welcomed in America. “As the officer questioned their nationality, she retreated to a back room. A few minutes later, she returned to inform the family that their applications for re-entry back into the U.S. had been denied. They would…
Ely Marick Karstark was born in Winterfell to the parents of Amara and Michael Karstark. His family consists of his twin brother, Alex, and his younger sister, Khloe, who is four years his junior. From a young age, Ely has attempted to help his mother in the stables raising and farming animals. However, Ely has always had trouble learning new concepts and tended to frequently make errors. Although this would visibly irritate his mother, she tried not to let it show and continued to teach him. Amara first showed him how to feed the animals and proceeded to teach him how to take care of offspring. After years passed from the first day Ely attempted to shear a sheep, he eventually became reasonably adpt at serving as a stablehand and…
Walter Dean Myers was born in Martins burg, West Virginia. His name at birth was Walter Milton Myers. He was two years old when his mother had died. Walter Dean Myers life was revolved around his neighborhood and church. Walter Dean Myers didn’t do as good in school. The sport that he played in school was basketball.…
Yusef Komunyakaa is a Black American poet who currently teaches at New York University. Yusef rose from being the son of a carpenter to becoming one of the most extraordinary poets writing today. In 1947, the eldest of five children James William Brown was born in a small town of Bogalusa, Louisiana. He would later grow up and reclaim the name Komunyakaa his grandfather had once lost as a stowaway in a ship from Trinidad. He was raised during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. He served in the US Army as a correspondent and as a specialist for the military paper, interviewing fellow soldiers, writing stories and actions on the Vietnam War.…
Serial killers are hard to catch because many of them don a guise of sanity. Andrei Chikatilo, while having some red flags such as accusations of inappropriate behavior towards minors, necessitating several moves and career changes, also had normal facets to his life: he was married with two children. Most serial murderers also operate with repeated motions, aka modus operandi (“MO”) when they commit their crimes—Chikatilo would often eviscerate, mutilate, sexually defile, and even engaged in cannibalizing his victims.…
1923. As a child he grew fond to a simple home life along with the Mennonite community. He…
Fritz Scholder was a professor for the Institute of American Indian Arts. At the time, Scholder vowed to never paint a Native American Indian; however, things changed when he thought his students could not get the honest truth in the representation of these indigenous people. On that day, Fritz broke his promise to himself and began the works that will define his career.…
In 1993 two minors had committed burglary, and murder. The minors names are Christopher Simmons age of 17, and Charles Benjamin age of 15. The victim was a neighbor of Christopher Simmons. Her name is Shirley Crook age of 46. Christopher Simmons and Charles Benjamin had tied up Shirley Crook to the chair and thrown her in the St. Louis Meramec river. Drowning her at the age of 46 .…
His name name was Edward James Wolff, he was born in San Diego, California April 7th 1896. Lived with my parents Edward Wolff and Pauline Wolff, they came to the United States from germany. He moved to Seattle, Washington at the age of 4. He went to school in Seattle and it was great. He didn’t really mind about me being from german descent because germans were one of the biggest immigrant groups in the United States and he was taught that everyone is equal. He always felt comfortable and not scared of being discriminated. Until the World War 1 began, he was 18 years old trying to make a living. But, he got discriminated, he was getting worse treatment that the rest of people, he got called names and made his life a lot harder, it got to the point where a german got lynched. Even though germans were a big…
Kip Kinkel, was born in Springfield Oregon on August 30, 1982, to Bill and Faith Kinkel, Kip had a sister Kristin, which was 6 years older than him. When Kip was 6 his parents who were both Spanish teachers wanted to study abroad for a year so the family moved to Spain. Kip had a difficult time because his teacher did not speak English, once the Kinkels moved back to the United States Kip was far behind in school and failed first grade. Kip’s family was very active, but kip was not so he struggled to fit in. In fourth grade Kip found out he had dyslexia, and his parents started studying with him many hours a night to help make him better in school, and even though he understood it was difficult for him to comprehend. Kip felt lost when his…
Looking at the trials and tribulations of an average adolescent’s life, there are many times of stress, trouble, and hopefully growth. If there are compounding instances of setbacks and hardships, this could be very detrimental to the development of a young mind. There are never any definitive answers as to why any of these young individuals who commit terrible acts of violence did what they did. There are multiple instances throughout their upbringing that can give some insight as to what could have led to the execution of a horrendous violent outbreak.…
I believe that there were several different things that were contributing factors to why Kipland Kinkel killed both his parents, and later two of his fellow peers. I do not think that there is one specific thing that can be blamed for Kip's behavior, but multiple things worked together to cause Kip's explosion.…
Kyle Winterbottom is only one of many teens to learn the hard way the negative effects of peer pressure. He was only 16 when he fell off of a balcony on the third floor. He was with friends drinking when six or seven people came down to their floor from a party. The strangers were drunk and asking for cigarettes, they also may have spiked Kyle’s drink. His parents say he wasn’t always doing drugs and drinking but pressure from his peers got him into it and now he is dead.…
Ole Kirk Christiansen; inventor of “Lego”; was born on April 7, 1891 in Filskov, Denmark; he was a renaissance man for many reasons, but one was because he didn't jump to Legos right away; he actually started slowly. To start; Ole Kirk Christiansen followed one of his brothers footsteps when he was 14; in 1905. He began to learn how to be a carpenter; he left and began in Germany, and later Norway. However; Ole Kirk Christiansen returned to the country of Denmark in 1916. When he returned he used his savings and brought the Billund Carpentry Shop and Lumberyard. When he got back he married a women named Kristine Sörensen. Ole Kirk Christiansen had met her in Norway, and had four children. Ole Kirk Christiansen didn't start too…