Ranking America's Fifty States: A Comparison in Graphic Detail

Gr 5–8—With the laudable goal of providing "maximum knowledge with minimum effort on the part of the reader," Dulberger presents approximately 175 infographic bar charts that compare the 50 states according to a vast array of areas from demographics, health, and lifestyle characteristics to natural resources and Federal aid. All of the charts are sourced in detail, and though most of the data comes from the Census Bureau's 2012 Statistical Abstract, the author also draws from numerous governmental publications. He incorporates a limited palette of colors within the charts to highlight the positions of the four most populous states and, in summary charts at the beginning of each topical section, uses color to convey a sense of each state's "low-middle-high" rankings. Along with a particularly helpful subject index, Dulberger closes with tables listing each state's highest and lowest rankings; Alaska, for instance, leads the pack by being most or least in 30 categories including highest in percentage of government employees and lowest in summer air temperature. Aside from a page of general observations at the beginning of each section, this is a great mass of unanalyzed metrics. Still, readers interested in a snapshot of where our fifty "laboratories of democracy" stand in relation to one another will find plenty of grist here in a visual, accessible form. Students looking for research topics in the areas of science or social studies will also find this resource useful for generating ideas. A worthy companion to the author's similarly designed America's Ranking Among Nations (Bernan, 2013).—John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York City