Memoir

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writeit/readpoem.asp?id=8801&genre=Memoir&Page=4&sortBy=state
I enjoyed this blog out the most out of the 20 or so I looked at. The memoir actually starts out with a paragraph from the future. I'm not sure if you can still call it a memoir, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
I enjoyed the memoir because of the descriptions the writer put into the small details. The description of the dust tornado, "...dust tornado would whirl by in the rocky desert, and I would watch it twirl and twirl until there was nothing left of it but a puff of smoke floating up into the sky." This creates a very vivid image in a reader's head, and "experience" the dust tornado, which is one of the goals of a memoir - to let others read about their experiences. The memoir does lack a real lesson learned. Since the story is based in the future, the lesson he learns is hypothetical, seeing as he's not guaranteed to accomplish anything. However, by writing the hypothetical future in the way he did, it shows that he was inspired by this experience, and eventually wants to build houses for kids.
As a story though, the memoir is okay. He describes his brother as a whining kid, and that's all he describes him as. There's no depth to the kid, just that he whine constantly about everything. The father also is poorly developed, and he shows no real personality. He appears to me as basically a paragon of dads.