Title - The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul Publisher: Yearling Print Synopsis Authors Purpose Genre The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963. Entertain Historical Fiction RDQ (Reading Difficulty Quotient) Accelerated Reader Lexile Find at 1119 3.8 760 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 52 Total # of Words 1848 # of Different Words 603 Ave Word/.Sent 14 Hi Freq occurs 1380 74.7% # of Hi freq words 273 45.3% % of Long Sentences 23.4 Low Freq occurs 78 4.2% # of Low freq words 60 10% Subjective Criteria Illustrations: No support Dialog: Multiple speakers Dialog: Broken dialogue Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues Language: Many descriptive words Sentences: Many Long Complex Text structure: Story/Poem Inferences: Some implications Complexity: Several ideas - closely related Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social Chapters Features Character traits Simple Plot Dialect/Accents Topics Temperature *Weather *History African Americans *Family & Friends *Schools & Education Relationships Low Frequency Words according bama bomber's breathed coloreds conversation couch's cushion degrees delinquent duper encouraged et flint friendlier furnace future hacking hambone hambonettes henderson honest hundredth imitating interrupted juvenile knots landlord michigan mighta momma's mongst nanook negative officially passenger plymouth proposed respect respectable scarf scarves seventies slew sounding southern sweaters territory thermostat they'da turd twenties watson watsons weatherman weird wilona windshield yourselves zillion