Title - The Birchbark House Author: Erdrich, Louise Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children Print Synopsis Authors Purpose Genre Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island on Lake Superior in 1847. Entertain Realistic Fiction RDQ (Reading Difficulty Quotient) Accelerated Reader Lexile Find at 2173 5.2 930 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 47 Total # of Words 3616 # of Different Words 1167 Ave Word/.Sent 13 Hi Freq occurs 2633 72.8% # of Hi freq words 475 40.7% % of Long Sentences 21.2 Low Freq occurs 293 8.1% # of Low freq words 228 19.5% Subjective Criteria Dialog: Multiple speakers Dialog: Broken dialogue Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker Vocabulary: Many difficult words Language: Many descriptive words Sentences: Some Long/Complex Text structure: Story/Poem Inferences: Several Implications Complexity: Several unrelated ideas Concepts: Abstract/Complex Social Chapters Headings Features Character traits Character development Integral Setting - Historical Integral Setting - Cultural/Regional Theme Difficult names Foreign words Topics *History Survival *Life Styles *Human Body & Health *Family & Friends Native Americans Low Frequency Words ache amusement angeline angeline's anishinabe anishinabeg approached awl baring birch birchbark blanketed breasted breathed bristled calmly canoes cedar cedary coldhearted confidence continual contrasted courage crescent crescents curious curled dappled delicate delicious deserved despaired deydey disdain disease dreaded driftwood droves embarrassed embroidered enigmatic expressions faltered fastened ferocious fiercely figures fingernail's flaws fragrant fury fussily gathering geget generous gloating graceful grainy grimaced hateful haunch height hesitation horror hummock immediately impatient insistance isolated kinnikinnick knowledge kokoko lagoon lapping laughter leathery lengths lining lopped lulling lunged luscious makazins makuks manitous manomin maple meaningful meanwhile medicines mention merely mischievous moment's moningwanaykaning mosquitoes mudded mushrooms muttered namesake napped neewo neshemay nesting neutral nimble numb omakayas omakayas's oozy overlapped paddled paddling pakuks papery particular particularly pawlike peaceful peered pelts personality pictured picturing pierced pitiful plagued pliable pouch practiced precious preferred pressure puckers rainwashed rangy razor regarded relays required respected responsible ridiculous rippled rippling rounded rounding runt saplings scented scissors secure secured sewn shadiest shared shingles shoving shrewdly sickness silkiest sliver slumbering slunk smacking smallpox smoky smoothed snowbanks softened solitary somewhat sparkling sparrow sparrows splintered splinters spongy sprang springy spruce startle startled stirred stitches strands strangely strangeness striding superior surely surrounded swales swamp sweetness swept tallow tallow's teetered tempered thickly thoughtful threading tobacco trilling twitch unable unbraided uneasily vanquished venison violence voyageurs warily whereabouts whimpering whining whitish who'd windigos winking wiry woodpecker woolly woven wrestling younger