Title - Island of the Blue Dolphins Author: O'Dell, Scott Publisher: Yearling Print Synopsis Authors Purpose Genre This book portrays the courage and self-reliance of Karana, an Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins off the California coast when her tribe emigrated and she was left behind. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away. Entertain Realistic Fiction RDQ (Reading Difficulty Quotient) Accelerated Reader Lexile Find at 2522 5.8 980 Amazon RDQ based on a maximum of 3000 words Levels are suggested levels based on RDQ, not official levels Sentences Total Words Different Words Max Word/Sent 61 Total # of Words 3648 # of Different Words 839 Ave Word/.Sent 15 Hi Freq occurs 2816 77.2% # of Hi freq words 375 44.7% % of Long Sentences 27.7 Low Freq occurs 165 4.5% # of Low freq words 103 12.3% Subjective Criteria Illustrations: No support Dialog: Multiple speakers Dialog: Broken dialogue Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker Vocabulary: Some difficult words Language: Colorful, figurative Sentences: Some Long/Complex Text structure: Story/Poem Inferences: Required Complexity: Several unrelated ideas Concepts: Abstract/Complex Social Chapters Features Character traits Character development Simple Plot First Person Difficult names Foreign words Topics Environment Cultures Dogs Overcoming Undersea Life Animals: Ocean Ships Islands *Habitats/Environments Beach Pets Sea Low Frequency Words afloat aleut aleuts arose bass befell befriend canoes carcasses ceasing companion concealed coral cormorant's cormorants crouched curious depth doubted dunes eastern echoed echoing encloses fleshed fortune gathering gazed ghalas glistening grasped grunted gull gulls harbor harvested hollow hoping idle instance instant intruders karana kelp laboring language lapping league leagues ledge ledges lei mesa mistaken mitriff motion obeyed ornaments otherwise otter parley peace pelt pelts profit prove pursued ramo ramo's ravine reefs refuse rejoicing rowing scarcely season seldom shone shrugged silvery skimming skinned sloping sparingly stalked stomachs strewn stunted sunning supplies surround surrounds swiftly terror thrust towing toyon ulape unfriendly warned weapons wears wives