Text Leveling System

Me and Neesie

RDQ:	253	Max Word/Sent	30	Total Words	1006		Diff Words	288
Lex	510	Ave Word/.Sent	9	Hi Freq occurs	705	70.1%	Hi freq	134	46.5%
AR	2.1	Long Sentences	5.5	Low Freq occurs	6	0.6%	Low freq	6	2.1%

It was a good thing for Nessie that Mama couldn't see her 
or she would have got a good spanking. Mama couldn't hear her either but I could. All the time Mama was cornrowing my hair Neesie kept calling me and waving her arms around trying to make me look at her. After a while I got tired of it. 
"Stop it Neesie!" I said. I couldn't play with her all the time even if she was my best friend. Mama pulled my head back around. 
"Keep your head still Janell" she said. "And stop talking to yourself." 
"I was talking to Neesie Mama" I said. 
"Nobody's in this bedroom but me and you" Mama said. "So if you not talking to me you talking to yourself." 
"Your mother don't know nothing" Nessie said. 
She made a face at Mama. I got scared just thinking about Mama seeing her. Sometimes Mama plays games but she don't never play games like that. 
Mama finished my hair and patted it. I could tell I looked pretty by the way she was smiling at me. She said "Your father ought to be getting back from the train station with Aunt Bea in a little while. You want to help me fix her lunch?" 
"Don't go Janell" Nessie said. "Let's stay in here and play store." 
I didn't know which one I wanted to do. I said "Mama Neesie wants me to play with her." 
Mama held her forehead with her hand like she had a headache or something. then she put her hand on my shoulder and bent down and looked right in my eyes. "All right Janell" she said. "But after Aunt Bea gets here I don't want to hear another word about that Neesie mess. I guess I could stand you making up a friend but Aunt Bea's old and nervous and I don't want you upsetting her. You hear me?" I said"Neesie's not made up Mama. She's real!" "You hear me Janell?" Mama said. I told Mama all right but I wasn't sure I could do it. It was hard not to talk about Neesie when she was always doing things. Right now she was rolling on the floor and laughing and I knew she was thinking about Aunt Bea being nervous. I tried to keep from laughing but I couldn't. I put my hand over my mouth and pointed at Neesie. I knew if Mama could see her squinching up her eyes and kicking her skinny legs she would laugh too. But Mama just shook her head and went out. Neesie was laughing so hard she rolled over on top of my new school shoes. "Move Neesie!" I said. "You messing up my school shoes!" But Aunt Bea didn't take it easy. She said "I'll get it!" She held onto the arm of the sofa and swung her stick up in the air. She started beating up the sofa. Neesie was yelling "Help! Help!" and scooting around to get out of the way. She crawled down to the other end of the sofa and then she just sat there looking silly like I did one time when I fell down in the store. "Did I get it Janell?" Aunt Bea asked. "Did I get it?" I couldn't talk right then. And Mama couldn't talk either. She was holding her forehead. But Daddy said "I think ou got it Aunt Bea." Neesie slid down off the sofa. "Let's go back in your room Janell" she said. I didn't answer her. I didn't want that stick to start flying again. I just said "I'll be right back Aunt Bea." I closed my door so Aunt Bea wouldn't hear me talking. Neesie still had that silly look on her face and I wanted to laugh but I didn't want to make her feel bad. "Aunt Bea's tough ain't she?" Neesie said. I said yeah Aunt Bea sure was tough. Neesie said" You can laugh if you want to Janell. I don't care." But I wasn't sure. Then Neesie started laughing and so did I. "That's what I get huh Janell?" she said. "That's what I get for trying to be so smart." We put our heads under the pillow so nobody could hear and we laughed for a long time. But the next morning Neesie was sad. She wouldn't get up. I wanted to go to school but she didn't. She kept her head under the covers while Mama helped me get ready. When me and Mama got outside I heard Neesie calling me and I looked up at the window. She was waving and I waved back. I didn't think about Neesie too much at school. I had a whole lot of fun with my new friends and my teacher. But when I got home I wanted to tell Neesie all about it. Only I couldn't find her. I looked all over and she wasn't there. I called Mama. "Shhhh" Mama said. "Aunt Bea's trying to sleep." "Mama" I said "I can't find Neesie." Mama said "You can't? " She looked glad and sorry at the same time. She put her arm around me. "Want me to ready you a story?" she said. I said "I don't care." Mama sat in the big chair and I sat on my little stool and leaned on her lap. She was reading to me but I wasn't listening. I was thinking about how sad Neesie looked waving to me out the window. And about how she was my best friend and I didn't have nobody to play with before she came. And then I got tickled thinking about how silly she looked when she laughed and all the fun we had. And then I thought about going to school the next day and laying with my new friends. And I wouldn't never tell them about Neesie. "Cause she was mine. Just mine. And then I put my head on Mama's lap like I always do and listened to her read.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Features

Topic

Mothers

Friendship

Imagination

School

Low Frequency Words

cornrowing	headache	ought	spanking	squinching
upsetting