Title - Too Many Tamales Author: Soto, Gary Publisher: G.P.Putnam's Sons Print Synopsis Authors Purpose Genre Maria was feeling very grown-up on Christmas Eve as she helped her mother prepare the tamales for Christmas dinner. When she slipped her mother's diamond ring onto her finger, she only meant to wear it for a minute. Entertain Realistic Fiction RDQ (Reading Difficulty Quotient) Accelerated Reader Lexile Find at 518 2.7 640 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 31 Total # of Words 995 # of Different Words 377 Ave Word/.Sent 8 Hi Freq occurs 625 62.8% # of Hi freq words 155 41.1% % of Long Sentences 5.4 Low Freq occurs 50 5% # of Low freq words 33 8.8% Subjective Criteria Illustrations: Some support Dialog: Multiple speakers Dialog: Broken dialogue Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues Language: Few descriptive words Sentences: Multiple phrases Text structure: Blend of written/oral Inferences: Some implications Concept: Fanciful Features Topics Cooking Customs Holidays Lost Food *Feelings, Behaviors Low Frequency Words cousin's cousins curls delicious diamond hoping husk husks interrupt jewel kneaded kneading leftover littered masa mouthful necklace nina nudged pearl perfume piped platter silvery skidded snipping sparkling spoonful stomachs swallowed tagging tamale tamales youngest