Text Leveling System

Freckle Juice

RDQ:	594	Max Word/Sent	32	Total Words	2013		Diff Words	568
Lex	660	Ave Word/.Sent	6	Hi Freq occurs	1354	67.3%	Hi freq	256	45.1%
AR	2.9	Long Sentences	1.7	Low Freq occurs	48	2.4%	Low freq	30	5.3%

Andrew Marcus wanted freckles. Nicky Lane had freckles. He 
had about a million of them. They covered his face his ears 
and the back of his neck. Andrew didn't have any freckles.
He had two warts on his finger. But they didn't do him any
good at all. If he had freckles like Nicky his mother would 
never know if his neck was dirty. So he wouldn't have to wash.
And then he'd never be late for school.
Andrew had plenty of time to look at Nicky's freckles. He 
sat right behind him in class. Once he even tried to count
them. But when he got to eighty-six Miss Kelly called "Andrew
. . . are you paying attention?"]]
"Yes Miss Kelly" Andrew said.
"Good Andrew. I'm glad to hear that. Now will you 
please pick up your chair and join your reading group? We're 
all waiting for you."
Andrew stood up in a hurry. His reading group giggled. 
Especially Sharon. He couldn't stand that Sharon. She thought 
she knew everything! He picked up his chair and carried it 
to the corner where his reading group sat.
"You may begin Andrew" Miss Kelly said. "Page sixty-four."
Andrew turned the pages in his book. Sixty-four . sixty-four. 
He couldn't find it. The 
pages stuck together. Why did Miss 
Kelly have to pick him? Everybody 
else already had their books opened 
to the right page.
Sharon kept giggling. She covered 
her mouth to keep in the noise 
but Andrew knew what was going
on. He finally found page sixty-
four. Right where it was supposed
to be . . . between pages sixty
three and sixty-five. If he had his 
own freckles he wouldn't have to 
count Nicky Lane's. Then he'd hear]] 
Miss Kelly when she called reading groups And nobody 
would laugh at him.
Later when the bell rang Andrew poked Nicky Lane.
"What do you want?" Nicky asked turning around.
"I was wondering about your freckles" Andrew said.
"Oh yeah? What about them?"
Andrew felt pretty stupid. "Well how did you get them?"
"What do you mean how? You get born with them. That's 
how!"
Andrew thought that's what Nicky would say. Some help 
he was!]] 
"Line up boys and girls" Miss Kelly said. "Time to go 
home now. Sharon you may lead the girls. Andrew you may 
lead the boys."
Some luck! Just when he got to be leader he had to stand 
next to Sharon!
When they were in line Sharon whispered to Andrew. 
"Psst . . . I know how to get them."
"How to get what?" Andrew asked.
"Freckles" Sharon said.
"Who asked you?"
"I heard you ask Nicky about his." Sharon ran her tongue 
along her teeth. She was always doing that.
"Do you want to know how to get them?" Sharon asked.
"Maybe" Andrew told her.
"It'll cost you fifty cents. I have a secret recipe for freckle 
juice" Sharon whispered.
"A secret recipe?"
"Uh huh."
Sharon's tongue reminded Andrew of a frog catching flies. 
He wondered if Sharon ever got a mouthful of bugs the way 
she opened her mouth and wiggled her tongue around. 
Andrew inspected Sharon's face. "You don't even have freckles!" 
he said.
"Look close" Sharon said. "I've got six on my nose."]] 
"Big deal! A lot of good six'll do."
"You can get as many as you want. Six was enough for 
me. It all depends on how much freckle juice you drink."
Andrew didn't believe Sharon for a minute. Not one 
minute! There was no such thing as freckle juice. Andrew had 
never heard of it before!]] 
That night Andrew had trouble sleeping. He kept thinking 
about freckle juice. Maybe the reason no one in his family 
had freckles was because no one knew the secret recipe. 
If they never even heard of freckle juice then how could they 
have any freckles? It figured!
Andrew didn't like the idea of paying Sharon for anything. 
And fifty cents was a lot of money. It was five whole weeks 
of allowance! But he decided that if Sharon's recipe didn't 
work he'd ask for his money back. It was easy.]] 
The next morning Andrew turned the combination of his 
safe-bank to just the right numbers. Four on top and zero on 
the bottom. He took out five dimes. He wrapped them in a 
tissue and stuffed the whole thing in his pocket. He didn't 
have time to wash his ears or neck or anything. He wanted 
to see Sharon before the last bell rang.
"Bye Mom" Andrew called.
"Andrew Marcus! Wait a minute!" His mother hurried over 
to him. She almost tripped on her long bathrobe. The curlers 
in her hair scratched Andrew's face as she checked his ears 
and neck.
"Please Mom! Can't we skip it just this once?" Andrew 
begged.
Mrs. Marcus stepped away from Andrew. She pointed a 
finger at him. "Okay" she said. "I'll let you go this time. But
tomorrow I'm looking again. And Andrew zip up your 
pants."
Andrew looked down. Zippers were a pain!
"This afternoon when you come home I'll be next door. 
Mrs. Burrows invited me over to play cards. You come get
the key from me okay?"
"Sure Mom. Okay."]]
Andrew raced to school. He could hardly wait to see the 
secret recipe. First he'd look at it and if it didn't seem any 
good he just wouldn't pay.
Sharon was already at her desk when Andrew arrived. He 
went right over to her.
"Did you bring it?" he asked.
"Bring what?" Sharon opened her eyes real wide.
"You know what! The secret recipe for freckle juice."
"Oh that! I have it-right here." Sharon patted her pocket.
"Well let's see it."
"Do you have the fifty cents?" Sharon asked.
"Sure-right here." Andrew patted his pocket.
"I'm not going to show it to you until you pay, ' Sharon said.
Andrew shook his head. "Oh no! First I want to see it."
"Sorry Andrew. A deal's a deal!" Sharon opened a book 
and pretended to read.
"Andrew Marcus!" Miss Kelly said. "Will you please sit 
down. The second bell just rang. This morning we'll begin 
with arithmetic. Nicky please pass out the yellow paper. 
When you get your paper begin working on the problems on 
the board."]] 
Andrew went to his seat. Then he took the tissue with the 
five dimes out of his pocket. He held it near the floor and 
aimed it toward Sharon.
She sat in the next row. Sharon stuck out her foot and 
stepped on the tissue. Then she slid it over until she could 
reach it with her hand.
She bent down and picked it up. Miss Kelly didn't notice.]]
Sharon counted the five dimes. Then she took a piece of 
folded-up white paper out of her pocket and threw it to Andrew.
It landed in the middle of the aisle. Andrew leaned way 
over to pick it up. But he lost his balance and fell off his chair.
Everybody laughed except Andrew and Miss Kelly.]] 
Miss Kelly sighed. "Oh Andrew! What are you up to now? 
Bring me that note please."
Andrew picked up the secret recipe. He didn't even have a 
chance to see it. It wasn't fair. It cost him fifty cents for 
nothing. He handed it to Miss Kelly. She read it. Then she 
looked up at him. "Andrew you may have this back at three 
o'clock." She put it in her desk. "I don't want this to happen 
again. Do you understand?"
"Yes Miss Kelly" Andrew mumbled.
"Good. Now let's get that arithmetic done."
Miss Kelly wasn't bad Andrew decided. She could have 
ripped up the recipe. Or sent him to the principal's office. Or 
even made him stand outside in the hall by himself.
Andrew could hardly wait for three o'clock to come. He 
didn't bother counting Nicky Lane's freckles. Soon he'd have 
his own. When the second bell finally rang and the class 
marched down the hall Andrew went up to Miss Kelly. She 
held the piece of white paper and waved it at him.
"Here's your note Andrew. I have the feeling it's important 
to you. But from now on you must pay attention in class."
Andrew took the recipe from Miss Kelly. "After tomorrow 
I won't have any trouble paying attention" he promised. 
"Just you wait Miss Kelly. I won't have any trouble at all!"]] 
Andrew ran all the way home. Then he remembered he had to go to 
Mrs. Burrows' house to get the key. The secret recipe 
for freckle juice was folded carefully in the bottom of Andrew's 
shoe. He was going to put it inside his sock but he was 
afraid if his foot got sweaty the ink might blur and he 
wouldn't be able to read it. So inside his shoe was safe enough. 
Even if it was windy nothing could happen to it there. He 
made up his mind not to read it until he got home He 
didn't want to waste any time getting there. And he wasn't]] 
the worlds fastest reader anyway even though he'd gotten 
better since last fall. Still there might be some hard words 
that would take a while to figure out.
Andrew pressed Mrs. Burrows' doorbell.
"Hello Andrew" she said when she opened the door. 
"You're home from school early."
"I ran all the way" Andrew panted.
"How about some milk and cookies?" Mrs. Burrows asked.
"No thank you. I just want the key."
"Well come in Andrew. Your mother's in the living 
room."
Andrew followed Mrs. Burrows. His mother was dealing 
four piles of cards.
"Hi Mom. I came for the key."
"Manners Andrew . . . manners! Don't you say hello 
to all the ladies?" Mrs. Marcus asked.
"Oh. Hello" Andrew said.
Mrs. Marcus reached for her purse. She opened it and gave 
Andrew the key. "Change your clothes and play outside. I'll 
be home by four o'clock."
That only gave him an hour. He hoped the recipe didn't 
say to cook anything. He wasn't allowed to turn on the stove 
or the oven. Andrew dashed to his house unlocked the front]] 
door and took off his shoe as soon as he was inside. He pulled 
out the secret recipe and sat down on the floor to read it. It 
said:
Sharon's Secret Recipe for Freckle Juice
One glass makes an average 
amount of freckles. To get like
Nicky Lane drink two glasses.
Mix up all these things
together - stir well and drink fast.
grape juice vinegar mustard
mayonnaise juice from one lemon
pepper and salt ketchup olive oil
and a speck of onion.
P.S. The faster you 
drink it the faster 
you get
Freckles ]] 
Andrew read the list twice. It didn't sound like much of a
secret recipe. His mother used those things every day. Of 
course she didn't use them all together. Maybe that was the 
secret part. Well he'd paid fifty cents. He might as well find
out.
He climbed up on the kitchen counter so he could reach the 
cabinets. He found everything except the lemon-that was in 
the refrigerator-and the onion. Mrs. Marcus kept onions in 
the basement in a bin. Andrew ran downstairs and selected 
a small one since the recipe only called for a speck. With or 
without the skin Andrew wondered.
He chose a big blue glass. He'd start with just one glassful 
and then drink another if he wanted more freckles. No point 
in overdoing it the first time. That's what his mother always 
said.
Now first the grape juice Andrew thought.m He filled the 
glass halfway and added an ice cube. All drinks tasted better 
cold and he was sure this one would too.
Then he added the other ingredients one by one. His mother 
had two kinds of vinegar-wine vinegar and plain vinegar. 
Andrew picked the wine one. He put in some hot mustard 
one spoonful of mayonnaise and plenty of pepper and salt 
Then some ketchup . . . that was hard to pour But what 
about olive oil? His mother had vegetable oil but no olive oil.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Inferences: Some implications

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Chapters

Features

Character traits

Character development

Clear cause/effect

Simple Plot

Topic

Body

Teacher/Teaching

Appearances

Secrets

Faces

*Human Body & Health

School

Low Frequency Words

aisle	allowance	average	blur	cabinets
combination	curlers	deal's	dealing	freckles
giggling	glassful	ingredients	inspected	ladies
mayonnaise	mouthful	mustard	olive	onion
pour	purse	recipe	refrigerator	selected
six'll	spoonful	tissue	vinegar	warts