Text Leveling System

Hucklebug

RDQ:	649	Max Word/Sent	27	Total Words	1171		Diff Words	431
Lex	670	Ave Word/.Sent	10	Hi Freq occurs	793	67.7%	Hi freq	177	41.1%
AR	3.0	Long Sentences	6.9	Low Freq occurs	41	3.5%	Low freq	36	8.4%

On a bright spring morning in a small 
village of Hucklebugs in someone's 
backyard Berry Hucklebug was born. There 
was nothing different about Berry. He was 
ordinary and fun-loving.
For months and months after Berry was 
born he played with the other bugs of the 
village. They would play hide-and-go-seek 
and "hucks" and robbers.]] 
Early one day Berry was called before the 
mayor of the little village. "Berry" he said
"you are of age now and you must work as 
the others of the village do. Food for all must 
be gathered by all."
"Me?" said an unbelieving Berry. "But I
don't want to. I want to stay with my 
friends. I want to run and play in the 
sunshine."
Sternly the mayor looked down at Berry 
and said "Everyone must work in this 
village and you are no exception. Please 
start tomorrow morning. That is all. You 
may go now."]] 
Sadly little Hucklebug walked back to 
his playmates. But since the mayor's news 
he didn't feel like joining his friends. So 
Berry sat in a corner and pouted. "What am
I going to do?" he said. "The mayor is picking 
on me because I'm small."
Suddenly an idea came to him. "I'll run 
away and live by myself. Nobody will bother 
me then." With that Berry went straight to 
his room. He rummaged through his butterfly 
wings and old bumblebee tails until he 
found his red bandana. Carefully he laid it 
on the floor and began packing.
He packed his hand knitted antenna 
warmers for cold winter mornings. He packed 
his favorite blue T-shirt with the big bold 
gold "B." And last but not least he packed 
his new orange sneakers for special 
occasions. Then Berry tied his bandana into a 
big careful knot threw it over his shoulder 
and slipped away from the village.]]
The farther he went the happier Berry 
became. There were beautiful flowers all 
around him. He saw forests of silver-blue 
grass and a blue sky overhead. "What do I 
need of that old Hucklebug village?" he 
laughed brightly. "Out here I have 
everything I need." And snickering he 
added: "There's no one to tell me what to 
do."
Once or twice he came upon some of his 
fellow bugs gathering food for the village. As 
soon as he saw them he would quickly jump 
behind a tall weed. From there he laughed 
and sneered at them for they had not 
thought to run away.]] 
After a time Berry came to a rise in the 
path. Creeping slowly to the top he 
discovered a furry caterpillar crawling along. 
Down below him he saw a giant's house. 
"WOW!" exclaimed Berry. "I bet it would 
be a lot of fun to go down there!"
Just then the caterpillar turned and 
frowned at the runaway. "If you're thinking 
of going down there" he grumbled "I'd 
think again."
Laughingly Berry twisted the caterpillar's 
antennas together. Then he raced 
down the hill to the huge house below. 
"That dumb caterpillar didn't know what 
he was talking about" he said. "Nobody 
can tell me what to do!"]] 
He ran jumped and giggled onto the 
lawn and there he found the most amazing 
toys that he'd ever seen in his entire life. 
There were gigantic squirt guns and 
mammoth baseball gloves which were large 
enough to live in if he wanted. He saw a 
beach ball that was at least 100 miles high. 
Berry felt as though he had found 
Hucklebug heaven.]] 
Berry climbed to the top of the beach ball 
and began bouncing up and down. He was 
doing flips and jumping so high he didn't 
notice that the door of the house was open. 
Some giant kids were coming out to play.]] 
The beach ball went flying! Berry went 
flying! The kids were playing kickball. 
Berry picked himself up from the cool grass. 
"What was that?" he said. Slowly he turned 
and for the first time saw the giants. 
"WOW! They are big but maybe I can play 
anyway."
With that he ran over to join in their fun 
but the giants didn't see him. Berry dodged 
from side to side. He managed to avoid 
being squashed by shoes as big as his house in
Hucklebug village.]] 
"Hey kids" he shouted "can I play too?" 
The giants were so busy laughing and giggling 
that they didn't hear him.
Just by chance one of the giant boys 
spied Berry standing in the grass. Carefully 
he leaned down and looked Berry right in 
the eye. "What a funny-looking bug" he 
said. Then he called to his friends to come 
and look at Berry.
Now let me tell you Berry was a little 
scared. In fact he was a lot scared. He 
wanted to run away but the giants blocked 
his path.]]
With a mischievious grin one of the giant boys pointed his squirt gun at Berry. Berry caught a full blast of water in his fuzzy face.
He was really scared now and started to run away. Every place he turned there was a giant trying either to step on him or to catch him. Scrambling over a leaf and under a twig Berry tearfully made his escape up the path.]] 
Puffing and panting he found his way back up to the top of the hill. The old caterpillar was still trying to untie his antennas so Berry untied them for him.
"You were right Mr. Caterpillar" said Berry. "I shouldn't have gone down there. I'm confused and I don't know what to do. It was a mistake to run away from home. Now I am ashamed to go back." Berry leaned against a toadstool and began to cry large purple Hucklebug tears.]] 
The wise old caterpillar smiled a little smile and said "Little Hucklebug if you have learned from your mistake it is not a mistake but a lesson. As you grow older you will make other mistakes but never be afraid to admit them. Go home now and do what needs to be done. Always remember the lesson you've learned today."
Berry wiped a tear from his eye. Then thanking the caterpillar for his kindness he headed home to the Hucklebug village.]] 
He walked through the beautiful flowers and the forests of silver-blue grass. Entering the village he bravely marched up to the mayor and said "Mr. Mayor I'm really sorry for running away. I've learned from my mistake and it is a lesson I will always remember. I promise that I'll never run away again."
The mayor patted Berry on the head and told him that he was forgiven. Since he had run away though he would have to work an extra day as punishment. Then the kind mayor smiled and told Berry to play for the rest of the day.
Berry Hucklebug gleefully skipped away to join his friends . . . at home.]]
Mistakes are always mistakes
or so I've heard them say...
But if it teaches a lesson
The mistake will go away.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Two speakers

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Some implications

Concept: Fanciful

Author's purpose: Obvious

Features

Simple Plot

Topic

Learning

*Community

Mistakes

Bugs

Insects

Responsibility

Low Frequency Words

antenna	antennas	crawling	exception	fellow
forgiven	furry	gathering	gigantic	giggling
gleefully	happier	hucklebug	hucklebugs	hucks
joining	kindness	knitted	laughingly	mammoth
mischievious	occasions	ordinary	playmates	rummaged
runaway	scrambling	sneered	snickering	spied
squashed	sternly	tearfully	toadstool	unbelieving
warmers