Text Leveling System

Boundless Grace

RDQ:	748	Max Word/Sent	29	Total Words	1403		Diff Words	461
Lex	690	Ave Word/.Sent	10	Hi Freq occurs	986	70.3%	Hi freq	217	47.1%
AR	3.2	Long Sentences	5.3	Low Freq occurs	25	1.8%	Low freq	21	4.6%

Grace lived with her ma and her nana and a cat called 
Paw-Paw. Next to her family what Grace liked best was 
stories. Some she knew and some she made up. She was 
particularly interested in ones about fathers-because she 
didn't have one. 
"You do too have a father" her ma 
said when she caught Grace talking 
that way. "I must have told you a 
hundred times about how we split up 
and your papa went back to Africa. 
He has another family now but he's 
still your father even though he 
doesn't live with us anymore." ]]
Well that wasn't Grace's idea of a father! She wanted 
one like Beauty's who brought her roses from the Beast's 
garden in spite of the dangers. Not one she hadn't seen 
since she was very little and only knew from letters and 
photographs. ]]
And in her school reading 
books Grace saw that all the 
families had a mother and a 
father a boy and a girl and a 
dog and a cat.  
"Our family's not right" 
she told Nana. "We need a 
father and a brother and 
a dog.
"Well" said Nana "I'm 
not sure how Paw-Paw 
would feel about a dog. And 
what about me? Are there any 
nanas in your schoolbooks?" 
Grace shook her head. 
"Do I have to go then?" 
asked Nana. 
"Of course not!" Grace 
said hugging her. 
Nana hugged her back. 
"A family with you in it is a 
real family" she said. 
"Families are what you make 
them." ]]
Then one day when Grace got home from school she 
saw a letter on the table with a crocodile stamp on it. 
Grace knew it must he from Papa but it wasn't Christmas 
or her birthday. 
"Guess what!" Ma said. "Your papa sent the money for 
two tickets to visit him in Africa for your spring vacation. 
Nana says she'll go with you if you want. What do you 
say?" 
But Grace was speechless. She had made up so many 
fathers for herself she had forgotten what the real one was 
like. ]]
Grace and Nana left for Africa on a very cold gray day. They 
arrived in The Gambia in golden sunshine like the hottest 
summer back home. It had been a long long trip. Grace barely 
noticed the strange sights and sounds that greeted her. She was 
thinking of Papa. 
I wonder if Papa will still love me? thought Grace. He has 
other children now and in stories it's always the youngest that 
is the favorite. She held on tightly to Nana. ]]
Outside the airport was a man 
who looked a little like Papa's 
photo. He swung Grace up in his 
arms and held her close. Grace 
buried her nose in his shirt and 
thought I do remember. ]]
In the car she started to notice 
how different everything seemed. 
There were sheep wandering 
along the roadside and people 
selling watermelons under the 
trees. ]]
And when they reached her 
father's compound there was the 
biggest difference of all. A pretty 
young woman with a little girl and a 
baby boy came to meet them. 
Grace said hello but couldn't 
manage another word all evening. 
Everyone thought she was just 
tired. Except Nana. 
"What's the matter honey?" 
she asked when they went to bed. 
"You've got a father and a brother 
now and they even have a dog!" 
But Grace thought They make 
a storybook family without me. 
I'm one girl too many. Besides 
it's the wrong Ma. ]]
The next day Grace started to get to know Neneh and 
Bakary. The children thought it was wonderful to have 
a big sister all the way from America. And Grace 
couldn't help liking them too. But she had to feel cross with 
someone. Grace knew lots of stories about wicked stepmothers 
- Cinderella Snow White Hansel and Gretel - so she 
decided to be cross with Jatou. I won't clean the house 
for her thought Grace. I won't eat anything she cooks 
and I won't let her take me into the forest. ]]
Jatou made a big dish of 
savory benachin for lunch 
but Grace wouldn't eat any. 
"I'm not hungry" she said. 
"She's probably still getting 
over the long flight" said Jatou. ]]
When Papa came home from work he found Grace in 
the backyard. He sat beside her under the big old jackfruit 
tree. "This is where my grandma used to tell me stories 
when I was a little boy" he said. 
"Nana tells me stories too" said Grace. 
"Did she ever tell you the one about how your ma and 
I came to split up?" asked Papa. 
"I know that one" said Grace "but I don't want to hear 
it right now" and she covered up her hears. 
Papa hugged her. "Would you like the one about the 
papa who loved his little girl so much he saved up all his 
money to bring her to visit him?" 
"Yes I'd like that one" said Grace. 
"Okay. But if I tell you that story will you promise to 
try to be nice to Jatou? You're both very important to 
me" said Papa. 
Grace thought about it. "I'll try" she said. ]]
The next day they went to the market. It was much 
more exciting that shopping at home. Even the money had 
crocodiles on it! Lots of the women carried their shopping 
on their heads. ]]
Then they went to a stall that was like stepping inside a 
rainbow. There was cloth with crocodiles and elephants 
on it and cloth with patterns made from pebbles and shells. 
And so many colors! ]]
"We can choose cloth for Grace's first African dress" 
said Papa. Grace and Nana spent a long time choosing. 
No one was in a hurry. ]]
The days of Grace's visit flew by. She played in the 
ocean with her brother and sister and she told them a 
bedtime story every night. She told all the stories she 
knew - Beauty and the Beast Rapunzel Rumpelstiltskin. 
It was amazing how many stories were about fathers who 
gave their daughters away. But she didn't tell them any 
about wicked stepmothers. ]]
Sometimes Ma called from home and her voice made 
Grace feel homesick. "I feel like gum stretched out all 
thin in a bubble" she told Nana. "As if there isn't enough 
of me to go around. I can't manage two families. What if 
I burst?" 
"Seems to me there is enough of you Grace" said 
Nana. "Plenty to go around. And remember families are 
what you make them." ]]
Soon it was their last evening and there was a big 
farewell party at the compound. Grace and Nana wore 
their African clothes and Grace ate twice as much 
benachin as everyone else. "Now you really might burst" 
said Nana.]]
On their last morning Papa took Grace to see some 
real crocodiles. "This is a special holy place" he said. 
"The crocodiles are so tame you can stroke them." 
"Not like the one in Peter Pan!" said Grace. 
"No. These are so special you can make a wish on 
them" said Papa. ]]
Grace closed her eyes and made a wish but she 
wouldn't say what it was. ]]
Later at the compound Grace asked Nana "Why aren't 
there any stories about families like mine that don't live 
together?" 
"Well at least you've stopped thinking it's your family 
that's wrong" said Nana. "Now until we get back home 
and find some books about families like yours you'll just 
have to make up a new story of your own." 
"I'll do that" said Grace "And when we're home again 
I'll write it down and sent it to Jatou to read to Neneh and 
Bakary." 
The whole family came to see them off at the airport. 
Grace was sorry to say good-bye to her new brother and 
sister and even to her stepmother. But leaving Papa was 
hardest of all. ]]
Waiting for their plane Nana asked Grace if she had 
thought anymore about her story. 
"Yes but I can't think of the right ending" said Grace 
"because the story's still going on." 
"How about they lived happily ever after?" asked Nana. 
"That's a good one" said Grace. "Or they lived happily 
ever after though not all in the same place?" 
"Stories are what you make them" said Nana. 
"Just like families" said Grace.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Some implications

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Mature concepts: With common experiences or clear fantasy

Features

Integral Setting

Simple Plot

Difficult names

Topic

Books

Travel/Traveling

Fathers

Cultures

Africa/ns

Caring/Hugs

Family

African Americans

Foreign Country

Divorce

*Family & Friends

Low Frequency Words

benachin	gambia	jackfruit	liking	manage
nanas	neneh	particularly	photographs	rapunzel
roadside	rumpelstiltskin	savory	schoolbooks	speechless
spite	stall	stepmothers	wandering	watermelons
youngest