Text Leveling System

Henry and Beezus

RDQ:	679	Max Word/Sent	38	Total Words	1136		Diff Words	446
Lex	680	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	697	61.4%	Hi freq	186	41.7%
AR	3.1	Long Sentences	13.2	Low Freq occurs	59	5.2%	Low freq	43	9.6%

Ribsy
and the Roast
HENRY HUGGINS stood by the front window 
of his square white house on Klickitat Street and 
wondered why Sunday afternoon seemed so much 
longer than any other part of the week. Mrs. Huggins 
was reading a magazine and Mr. Huggins 
puffing on his pipe was reading the funnies in 
the Sunday Journal.
Henry's dog Ribsy was asleep in the middle 
of the living-room rug. As Henry looked at him 
he suddenly sat up scratched hard behind his 
left ear with his left hind foot and flopped down 
again without even bothering to open his eyes.]] 
Henry pressed his nose against the windowpane 
and looked out at Klickitat Street. The only person 
he saw was Scooter McCarthy who was riding 
up and down the sidewalk on his bicycle..
"I sure wish I had a bike" remarked Henry to 
his mother and father as he watched Scooter.
"I wish you did too" agreed his mother "but 
with prices and taxes going up all the time I'm 
afraid we can't get you one this year."
"Maybe things will be better next year" said 
Mr. Huggins dropping the funnies and picking 
up the sport section.
Henry sighed. He wanted a bicycle now. He 
could see himself riding up and down Klickitat 
Street on a shiny red bike. He would wear his 
genuine Daniel Boone coonskin cap with the 
snap-on tail only he wouldn't wear the tail 
fastened to the hat. He would tie it to the handle 
bars so that it would wave in the breeze as he 
whizzed along.]] 
"Henry" said Mrs. Huggins interrupting his 
thoughts "please don't rub your nose against my 
clean window."
"All right Mom" said Henry. "I sure wish 
something would happen around here sometime."
"Why don't you go over to Robert's house? 
Maybe he can think of something to do" 
suggested Mrs. Huggins, as she turned a page of her 
magazine.
"O.K." agreed Henry. Robert's mother said 
they couldn't give the white mice rides on Robert's 
electric train any more but maybe they could 
think of something else. "Come on Ribsy" said 
Henry.
Ribsy stood up and shook himself scattering 
hair over the rug.
"That dog" sighed Mrs. Huggins.
Henry thought he had better leave quickly. As 
he and Ribsy started down the front steps Robert 
came around the corner.]] 
"What's up Doc?" said Robert.
"Hi" responded Henry.
"My dad said maybe if I came over to your 
house you could think of something to do" said 
Robert.
The boys sat down on the front steps. "Here 
comes old Scooter" observed Robert. The two 
boys watched the older boy pumping down the 
street on his bicycle. He was whistling and not 
only was he riding without touching the handle 
bars he even had his hands in his pockets.
"Hi" said Scooter casually without stopping. 
"Big show-off" muttered Robert. "I bet he takes 
that bike to bed with him."
"He sure thinks he's smart" agreed Henry. 
"He's been riding up and down all afternoon. 
Come on let's go around in the back yard where 
we won't have to watch old Scooter show off all 
day. Maybe we can find something to do back 
there."]] 
Ribsy followed at the boys' heels. Unfortunately 
the back yard was no more interesting 
than the front. The only sign of life was next door. 
A large yellow cat was dozing on the Grumbies' 
back steps and there was smoke coming from the 
barbecue pit.
Robert looked thoughtful. "Does Ribsy ever 
chase cats?"]]
"Not that old Fluffy." Henry understanding 
what was on Robert's mind explained that Mrs. 
Grumbie sprinkled something called Doggie-B-
Gone on her side of the rosebushes. Ribsy 
disliked the smell of it and was careful to stay on 
his side of the bushes.
Robert was disappointed. "I thought Ribsy 
might ..."
"No such luck" interrupted Henry looking 
at his dog who had settled himself by the back 
steps to continue his nap. Henry picked a blade 
of grass and started to blow through it when the]] 
squeak-slam of the Grumbles' screen door made 
him look up. "Jeepers!" he whispered.
Stepping carefully over Fluffy Mr. Hector 
Grumbie walked down the back steps. He was 
wearing a chef's tall white hat and an immense 
white apron. What's cooking? was written across 
the hat and on the apron was printed a recipe 
for Bar X Ranch Bar-B-Q Sauce. Mr. Grumble 
carried a tray full of bowls jars bottles and what 
appeared to be bunches of dried weeds.
"Is he really going to cook?" whispered Robert. 
"Search me" answered Henry. The two boys 
edged closer to the rosebushes that divided the 
two yards.
"Hello Mr. Grumbie" said Henry.
"Hello there Henry." Mr. Grumble crossed the 
lawn and set the tray on the edge of the barbecue 
pit in the corner of his yard. He peeled a small 
object which he put into a bowl sprinkled with 
salt and mashed with a little wooden stick. Then]] 
he broke off pieces of the dried weeds and mashed 
them too.
Henry and Robert exchanged puzzled looks. 
"Need any help Mr. Grumble?" asked Henry. 
"No thank you." Mr. Grumbie poured a few 
drops of something into the mixture.
"Is that something that's supposed to be good 
to eat?" asked Robert. Mr. Grumble didn't answer.
"What's that stuff in the bowl?" asked Henry.
"Herbs and garlic" answered Mr. Grumbie. 
"Now run along and play boys. I'm busy."
Henry and Robert did not move.
"Etta!" called Mr. Grumble to his wife. "I forgot 
the vinegar." He coughed as a breeze blew 
smoke in his face.
"I'll go get it for you" offered Henry but his 
neighbor ignored him.
Squeak-slam went the screen. Mrs. Grumbie 
stepped over Fluffy and walked across the yard
with a bottle in her hand. "Hector can't we take]] 
your friends out to dinner instead of going to all 
this trouble?" she asked as she fanned smoke out 
of her eyes.
"This is no trouble at all." Mr. Grumble added 
a few drops of vinegar to the mixture in the bowl.
Henry thought Mrs. Grumbie looked cross as 
she said "Hector why don't you let me cook the 
meat in the house? It would be so much easier 
and then we could bring it outside to eat."
"Now Etta I know what I'm doing." Mr. Grumbie 
poured a few drops from another bottle and 
mashed some more.
"But I don't like to see you spoil the flavor of a 
perfectly good piece of meat with all that 
seasoning. It would be different if you really knew 
how to cook." Mrs. Grumble frowned as she 
swatted at a bug circling over the sauce.
Mr. Grumbie frowned even more. "Anyone who 
can read a recipe can cook."
Mrs. Grumbie's face turned red as she clapped]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Some implications

Complexity: Several ideas - closely related

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Features

Simple Plot

Topic

Work

Bicycles

Money

*Family & Friends

Pets

Low Frequency Words

casually	chef's	circling	disappointed	disliked
edged	etta	fastened	funnies	garlic
grumbie	grumbie's	grumbies	herbs	hind
ignored	immense	interrupted	interrupting	jeepers
journal	klickitat	mccarthy	muttered	neighbor
object	observed	pockets	recipe	remarked
responded	ribsy	rosebushes	sauce	seasoning
section	thoughtful	understanding	unfortunately	vinegar
whistling	whizzed	windowpane