Title - The Valentine Express Author: Wallace, Nancy Elizabeth Publisher: Scholastic Print Synopsis Authors Purpose Genre It’s Valentine’s Day! Minna’s teacher explains why the class celebrates the holiday every year on February 14th. But Minna and her brother, Pip, give the holiday special meaning when they discover that their neighbors might not have gotten any valentines. Entertain RDQ (Reading Difficulty Quotient) Accelerated Reader Lexile Find at 564 2.9 650 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 25 Total # of Words 1354 # of Different Words 433 Ave Word/.Sent 6 Hi Freq occurs 782 57.8% # of Hi freq words 171 39.5% % of Long Sentences 3.3 Low Freq occurs 53 3.9% # of Low freq words 30 6.9% Subjective Criteria Illustrations: Little support Dialog: Multiple speakers Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues Language: Few descriptive words Sentences: Multiple phrases Text structure: Blend of written/oral Features Topics Gifts Kindness *Arts & Crafts Valentines Day *Holidays, Events, Cele Low Frequency Words amis beaucoup calendar giggling glued hobbling lemonade madame mantel markers measured merci minna minna's mobile neighbors reasons scissors stewart sweetheart sweethearts symbol tangled thoughtful throbs triangle vanessa vanessa's voila wunder