Title - The Last Mission Author: Mazer, Harry Publisher: Laurel Leaf Books Print Synopsis Authors Purpose Genre Some profanity. In 1944 a 15-year-old Jewish boy tells his family he will travel in the West but instead, leaving New York City, his family, and his boyhood behind, Jack uses a false I.D. and lies his way into the U.S. Air Force. Persuade Historical Fiction RDQ (Reading Difficulty Quotient) Accelerated Reader Lexile Find at 2594 5.9 990 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 102 Total # of Words 2830 # of Different Words 941 Ave Word/.Sent 10 Hi Freq occurs 1994 70.5% # of Hi freq words 393 41.8% % of Long Sentences 13.9 Low Freq occurs 214 7.6% # of Low freq words 155 16.5% Subjective Criteria Illustrations: No support Dialog: Multiple speakers Dialog: Broken dialogue Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker Vocabulary: Some difficult words Language: Many descriptive words Sentences: Some Long/Complex Text structure: Story/Poem Inferences: Several Implications Complexity: Several ideas - closely related Concepts: Abstract/Complex Social Prior Knowledge: Familiarity Sequence of Events: Chronological Mature Concepts: With some uncommon experiences Features Character traits Integral Setting - Historical Simple Plot Topics *History Death War Fighting Lying Airplanes *Feelings, Behaviors Low Frequency Words addressee airfield alertly approaching belted bluest breast bureau burnt caliber casings certificate chocks cigarette cigarettes comer commando commandos compartment confident copilot corps cousins coveralls crewmen curse drawer ease elders engineer engines enlisted eustice exhilarated extinguisher eyed flaming flown formation forwarding freckled gary german germans gi'd gonzalez gripped gritty gunner gunners gunnery haired hale handball hardworking headphone hell heroes hitler hitler's hooves imagining inhale instructors intensive intercom irish kneeling knelt laced legged lied lieutenant lingering louisiana marcia martin's mere miami michigan milt mimicking mission missions mustang nathan navigation navigator nazi nazis nevada nightmares o'er occupied operate operator owe penn phase physical pilots poland pronto propellers props raab raab's reared recruiting recruits rejected relatives rheumatic roberts rounding rumpled saginaw scarves section seppetone setter slouching smartly smoothly soldier southerner spangled speech spending sprawled squadrons squarely squatted straightened streaked suffocating sweat swiped swivel takeoff taut territory terror tightened tongs trigger turret unknown untrained vision vitally volunteers wrinkled yanked youngest