Title - Pick of the Litter Author: Wallace, Bill Publisher: Aladdin Print Synopsis Authors Purpose Genre Twelve-year-old Tom learns first-hand about honor: first when he is wrongly accused of lying at school, and then when he faces the risk of losing a puppy he has come to love while helping his grandfather train hunting dogs. But writing to a new friend helps him sort out his feelings and do the right thing. Entertain Realistic Fiction RDQ (Reading Difficulty Quotient) Accelerated Reader Lexile Find at 1062 3.7 750 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 34 Total # of Words 2574 # of Different Words 688 Ave Word/.Sent 8 Hi Freq occurs 1935 75.2% # of Hi freq words 294 42.7% % of Long Sentences 5 Low Freq occurs 101 3.9% # of Low freq words 77 11.2% Subjective Criteria Illustrations: No support Dialog: Multiple speakers Dialog: Broken dialogue Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker Vocabulary: Some difficult words Language: Many descriptive words Sentences: Multiple phrases Text structure: Story/Poem Inferences: Some implications Complexity: Several ideas - closely related Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social Chapters Features Character traits Character development Simple Plot First Person Topics Dogs Honesty Courage *Animals Helping *Feelings, Behaviors Low Frequency Words arched attendance blurred bowlin bureau column columns conference cooperton curled cursive decker dependable disappointed dunn fully glare glared glaring gnawed grounded gulp gulping hesitated honest honor hovered instant intend ivy liar lied lounge ma'am motion muttered nightmare nostrils ought paces painfully palms paused pausing persuade quotient rattling remorseful respect restroom ridiculous scamper scheduled science shortcuts slump smoothed snarled social squiggled staggering stammer studies surgery swallowed swear tabletop tournament trudged unacceptable urged variety vision wheeled whisper whooshed yanked zigzagged