Text Leveling System

Dinosaurs Before Dark

RDQ:	851	Max Word/Sent	24	Total Words	2274		Diff Words	564
Lex	710	Ave Word/.Sent	5	Hi Freq occurs	1531	67.3%	Hi freq	250	44.3%
AR	3.4	Long Sentences	0.2	Low Freq occurs	68	3%	Low freq	49	8.7%

Into the Woods 
"Help! A Monster!" said Annie. 
"Yeah sure" said Jack. "A real monster in Frog Creek Pennsylvania." 
"Run Jack!" said Annie. She ran up the road. 
Oh brother. This is what he got for spending time with his seven-year-old sister. Annie loved to pretend stuff. But Jack was eight and a half. He liked real things. "Watch out Jack! The monster's coming! Race you!" 
"No thanks" said Jack. Annie raced alone into the woods. Jack looked at the sky. The sun was about to set. "Come on Annie! It's time to go home!" But Annie disappeared. Jack waited. No Annie. "Annie!" he shouted again. "Jack! Jack! Come here!" Jack groaned. "This better be good" he said. Jack left the road and headed into the woods. The trees were lit with a golden late afternoon light. "Come here!" called Annie. There she was. Standing under a tall oak tree. "Look" she said. She was pointing at a rope ladder. The longest rope ladder Jack had ever seen. "Wow" he whispered. The ladder went all the way to the top of the tree. There - at the top - was a tree house. It was tucked between two branches. "That must be the highest tree house in the world" said Annie. "Who built it?" asked Jack. "I've never seen it before. "I don't know. But I'm going up" said annie. "No. We don't know who it belongs to" said Jack. "Just for a teeny minute" said Annie. She started up the ladder. "Annie come back!" She kept climbing. Jack sighed. "Annie it's almost dark. We have to go home." Annie disappeared inside the tree house. "Annie!" Jack waited a moment. He was about to call again when Annie poked her head out of the tree house window. "Books!" she shouted. "What?" "It's filled with books!" Oh man. Jack loved books. He pushed his glasses into place. He gripped the sides of the rope ladder and up he went. 
The Monster 
Jack crawled through a hole in the tree house floor. Wow. The tree house was filled with books. Books everywhere. Very old books with dusty covers. New books with shiny bright covers. "Look. You can see far far away" said annie. She was peering out the tree house window. Jack looked out the window with her. Down below were the tops of the other trees. In the distance he saw the Frog Creek library. The elementary school. The park. Annie pointed in the other direction. "There's our house" she said. Sure enough. There was their white wooden house with the green porch. Next door was their neighbor's black dog Henry. He looked very tiny. "Hi Henry!" shouted Annie. "Shush!" said Jack. "We're not supposed to be up here." He glanced around the tree house again. "I wonder who owns all these books" he said. He noticed bookmarks were sticking out of many of them. "I like this one" said Annie. She held up a book with a castle on the cover. "Here's a book about Pennsylvania" said Jack. He turned to the page with the bookmark. "Hey there's a picture of Frog Creek in here" said Jack. It's a picture of these woods. "Oh here's a book for you" said Annie. She held up a book about dinosaurs. A blue silk bookmark was sticking out of it. "Let me see it." Jack set down his backpack and grabbed the book from her. "You look at that one and I'll look at the one about castles" said Annie. "No we better not" said Jack. "We don't know who these books belong to." But even as he said this Jack opened the dinosaur book to where the bookmark was. He couldn't help himself. He turned to a picture of an ancient flying reptile. A Pteranodon. He touched the huge bat-like wings. "Wow" whispered Jack. "I wish I could see a Pteranodon for real." Jack studied the picture of the odd-looking creature soaring through the sky. "Ahhhh!" screamed Annie. "What?" said Jack. "A monster!" Annie cried. She pointed to the tree house window. "Stop pretending Annie" said Jack. "No really!" said Annie. Jack looked out the window. A giant creature was gliding above the treetops! He had a long weird crest on the back of his head. A skinny beak. And huge bat-like wings! At was a real live Pteranodon! The creature curved through the sky. He was coming straight toward the tree house. He looked like a glider plane! The wind began to blow. The leaves trembled. Suddenly the creature soared up. High into the sky. Jack nearly fell out the window trying to see it. The wind picked up. It was whistling now. The tree house started to spin. "What's happening?" cried Jack. "Get down!" shouted Annie. She pulled him back from the window. The tree house was spinning. Faster and faster. Jack squeezed his eyes shut. He held on to annie. Then everything was still. Absolutely still. Jack opened his eyes. Sunlight slanted through the window. There was Annie. The books. His backpack. The tree house was still high up in an oak tree. But it wasn't the same oak tree. Jack looked out the window. He looked down at the picture in the book. He looked back out the window. The world outside and world in the picture - they were exactly the same. The Pteranodon was soaring through the sky. The ground was covered with ferns and tall grass. There was a winding stream. A sloping hill. And volcanoes in the distance. "Wh-where are we?" stammered Jack. The Pteranodon glided down to the base of their tree. The creature coasted to a stop. And  stood very still. "What happened to us?" said Annie. She looked at Jack. He looked at her. "I don't know" said Jack. I was looking at the picture in the book -" "And you said 'Wow I wish I could see a Pteranodon for real'" said Annie. "Yeah. And then the wind got loud. And the tree house started spinning" said Annie. "And we landed here" said Jack. "And we landed here" said Annie.  "So that means ... " said Jack. "So that means ... what?" said Annie. "Nothing" said Jack. He shook his head. "None of this can be real." Annie looked out the window again. "But he's real" she said. "He's very real." Jack looked out the window with her. The Pteranodon was standing at the base of the oak tree. Like a guard. His giant wings were spread out on either side of him. "Hi!" Annie shouted. "Shush!" said Jack. "We're not supposed to be here." "But where is here?" said Annie. "I don't know" said Jack. "Hi!" Annie called again to the creature. The pteranodon looked up at them. "Where is here?" Annie called down. "You're nuts. He can't talk" said Jack. "But maybe the book can tell us." Jack looked down at the book. He read the words under the picture: This flying reptile lived in the Cretaceous period. It vanished 65 million years ago. No. Impossible. They couldn't have landed in a time 65 million years ago. "Jack" said Annie. "He's nice." "Nice?" "Yeah I can tell. Let's go down and talk to him." "Talk to him?" Annie started down the rope ladder. "Hey!" shouted Jack. But Annie kept going. "Are you crazy?" Jack called. Annie dropped to the ground. She stepped boldly up to the ancient creature. Jack gasped as Annie held out her hand. Oh brother. She was always trying to make friends with animals. But this was going too far. "Don't get too close to him Annie!" Jack shouted. But Annie touched the Pteranodon's crest. She stroked his neck. She was talking to him. What in the world was she saying? Jack took a deep breath. Okay. He would go down too. It would be good to examine the creature. Take notes. Like a scientist. Jack started down the rope ladder. When he got to the ground Jack was only a few feet away from the creature. The creature stared at Jack. His eyes were bright and alert. "He's soft Jack" said Annie. "He feels like Henry." Jack snorted. "He's no dog Annie." "Feel him Jack" said Annie. Jack didn't move. "Don't think Jack. Just do it." Jack stepped forward. He put out his arm. Very cautiously. He brushed his hand down the creature's neck. Interesting. A thin layer of fuzz  covered the Pteranodon's skin. "Soft huh?" said Annie. Jack reached into his backpack and pulled out a pencil and a notebook. He wrote: fuzzy skin "What are you doing?" asked Annie. "Taking notes" said Jack. "We're probably the first people in the whole world to ever see a real live Pteranodon." Jack looked at the Pteranodon again. The creature had a bony crest on top of his head. The crest was longer than Jack's arm. "I wonder how smart he is" Jack said. "Very smart" said Annie. "Don't count on it" said Jack. "His brain's probably no bigger than a bean." "No he's very smart. I can feel it" said Annie. "I'm going to call him Henry." Jack wrote in his notebook: small brain? Jack looked at the creature again. "Maybe he's a mutant" he said. The creature tilted his head. Annie laughed. "He's no mutant Jack." "Well what's he doing here then? Where is this place?" said Jack. "Do you know where we are Henry?" she asked softly. The creature fixed his eyes on Annie. His long jaws were opening and closing. Like a giant pair of scissors. "Are you trying to talk to me Henry?" asked Annie. "Forget it Annie." Jack wrote in his notebook: mouth like scissors? "Did we com to a time long ago Henry?" asked Annie. "Is this a place from long ago?" Suddenly she gasped. "Jack!" He looked up. Annie was pointing toward the hill. On top stood a huge dinosaur! Gold in the Grass "Go! Go!" said Jack. He threw his notebook into his pack. He pushed Annie toward the rope ladder. "Bye Henry!" she said. "Go!" said Jack. He gave Annie a big push. "Quit it!" she said. But she started up the ladder. Jack scrambled after her. They tumbled into the tree house. They were panting as they looked out the window at the dinosaur. He was standing on the hilltop. Eating flowers off a tree. "Oh man" whispered Jack. "We are in a time long ago!" The dinosaur looked like a huge rhinoceros. Only he had three horns instead of one. Two long ones above his eyes and one on his nose. He had a big shield-like thing behind his head. "Triceratops!" said Jack. "Does he eat people?" whispered Annie. "I'll look it up." Jack grabbed the dinosaur book. He flipped through the pages. "There!" he said. He pointed to a picture of a Triceratops. He read the caption: The Triceratops lived in the late Cretaceous period. This plant-eating dinosaur weighed over 12000 pounds. Jack slammed the book shut. "Just plants. No meat." "Let's go see him" said Annie. "Are you nuts" said Jack. "Don't you want to take notes about him?" asked Annie. "We're probably the first people in the whole world to ever see a real live Triceratops." Jack sighed. She was right. "Let's go" he said. He shoved the dinosaur book into his pack. He slung it over his shoulder and started down the ladder. On the way down Jack stopped. He called up to Annie "Just promise you won't pet him. "I promise." "Promise you won't kiss him." "I promise." "Promise you won't talk to him." "I promise." "Promise you won't - " "Go! Go!" she said. Jack went. Annie followed. When they stepped off the ladder the Pteranodon gave them a kind look. Annie blew a kiss at him. "Be back soon Henry" she said cheerfully. "Shush!" said Jack. And he led the way through the ferns. Slowly and carefully. When he reached the bottom of the hill he kneeled behind a fat bush. Annie knelt beside him and started to speak. "Shush!" Jack put his finger to his lips. Annie made a face. Jack peeked out at the Triceratops. The dinosaur was incredibly big. Bigger than a truck. He was eating flowers off a magnolia tree. Jack slipped his notebook out of his pack. He wrote: eats flowers Annie nudged him. Jack ignored her. He studied the Triceratops again. He wrote: eats slowly Annie nudged him hard. Jack looked at her. Annie pointed to herself. She walked her fingers through the air. She pointed to the dinosaur. She smiled. Was she teasing? She waved at Jack. Jack started to grab her. She laughed and jumped away. She fell into the grass. In full view of the Triceratops! "Get back!" whispered Jack. Too late. The big dinosaur had spotted Annie. He gazed down at her from the hilltop. Half of a magnolia flower was sticking out of his mouth. "Oops" said Annie. "Get back!" Jack shouted at her. "He looks nice Jack." "Nice? Watch out for his horns Annie!" "No. He's nice Jack.Nice? But the Triceratops just gazed calmly down at Annie. Then he turned and loped away. Down the side of the hill. "Bye!" said Annie. She turned back to Jack. "See?" Jack grunted. But her wrote in his notebook: Nice "Come on. Let's look around some more" said Annie. As Jack started after Annie he saw something glittering in the tall grass. He reached out and picked it up. A medallion. A gold medallion. A letter was engraved on the medal. A fancy M. "Oh man. Someone came here before us" Jack said softly. ]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: No support

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Inferences: Some implications

Concept: Fanciful

Table of Contents

Chapters

Features

Character traits

Integral Setting - Historical

Simple Plot

Topic

Time

Trees

Wishes

Children

Magic

Dinosaurs

Low Frequency Words

absolutely	calmly	caption	cautiously	coasted
com	creature's	curved	elementary	engraved
ferns	gazed	gliding	gripped	grunted
ignored	incredibly	kneeled	knelt	loped
magnolia	medal	medallion	monster's	mutant
neighbor's	nudged	peering	pennsylvania	pteranodon
pteranodon's	scientist	scissors	scrambled	shield
shoved	sloping	slung	soared	soaring
spending	stammered	studied	tilted	triceratops
volcanoes	weighed	weird	whistling