Text Leveling System

Tacky in Trouble

RDQ:	619	Max Word/Sent	49	Total Words	1205		Diff Words	462
Lex	660	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	709	58.8%	Hi freq	179	38.7%
AR	3.0	Long Sentences	12.4	Low Freq occurs	83	6.9%	Low freq	54	11.7%

As goodly, lovely, Angel, neatly, and perfect sang sunrise on the iceberg, the sun rose on the iceberg. They felt very much in charge.
What's happening? Blared Tacky the penguin , greeting each of his companions with the hearty slap on the back. After breakfast the Penguins went about their morning activities.
Whether they were ice block building, napkin folding, feather combing, or ballroom dancing, Tacky was the odd bird. Then it was naptime. Nap time for all, that is, but tacky.
What a great day for surfing! He cried.
With that be fine or what!
It would be what, said goodly, lovely, Angel, neatly, and perfect.
Go surfing if you must, but please do it quietly. So tacky took off alone and coasted over the waves.
Suddenly the wind came up, filling his shirt like a sale, and he found himself blowing full speed ahead out to sea. He loved the spray on his beak and the thrill of the ride.
On he sailed. And on and on, through sunny days and starlit nights. By the time he finally reached land he was standing on tippy webs on an ice cube. With his little heart beating in excitement tacky waddled ashore, ready for an adventure.
After being greeted by the strangest Penguins he'd ever seen, he came upon a large gray rock. How nice. He had lots of rocks at home. Funny, thought tacky. This rock is warm.
The rocks he knew were cold. And it's a little squishy. The rocks he knew were hard.
And sort of hairy. Hairy? He couldn't remember any hairy rocks back on the iceberg.
Tacky Never could sit still for long, so he did the little rock hopping dance he always enjoyed doing at home.
I don't need shoes, and I don't need socks, just my mellow yellow feet for hopping on the rocks. Hey!
I don't need shoes, and I don't need socks, just my mellow yellow feet for hopping on the rocks. Hey!
I don't-
suddenly the rock rose up and a voice louder than any Penguins, a voice louder than even Tacky's, boomed something is tickling my back.
Before tacky could ask what's happening? The rock, whose name happened to be rocky, grabbed him, and they were crashing through the jungle.
Tacky Loved adventures, but was this a fun or what? He wasn't sure. Finally rocky came to a very gray clearing, plunked tacky down, and bellowed, flowers for my table!
While tacky was puzzled, Rocky was overjoyed, for she had taken one look at tacky's shirt and was convinced she had brought home the most beautiful bunch of flowers in the world. Yes indeedy, just what I needed to bright up this dreary old place. Let's see, I'll need a wide vase. It's a gorgeous bunch of flowers, a pretty thick around the stem area.
After choosing her widest vase, Rocky plopped tacky in, and he looked around. The table was set for dinner, with catsup and lemon pie and a grape punch and gravy and mustard and marmalade and peanut butter and lots of other good things.
Rocky galumphed gleefully around the table singing, Flowers make all the difference
Flowers make all the difference
"I'm not a bunch of flowers," said Tacky.
"Say what?" Rocky trumpeted. "Of course you're a bunch of flowers. Don't be silly."
She sniffed Tacky. "You smell lovely, too." "Thank you," said Tacky. "But I'm
not a bunch of flowers. I'm a penguin."
Rocky eyed Tacky suspiciously. "What's a penguin, some sort of weird plant?"
"No," offered Tacky, "it's a kind of bird."
"A bird!" snorted Rocky. "What a hoot! You're not like any bird I've ever seen."
Tacky felt his neck feathers prickle uncomfortably. "I'm really, honestly, truly a penguin," he repeated.
Rocky did not want to hear this. She wanted flowers.
She needed those flowers, and her dull gray home needed those flowers.
"If you're a penguin, prove it," Rocky demanded.
Then she reached out - whoosh - she snatched Tacky's shirt! "At least I'm keeping the pretty blossoms, no matter
what. Well, unless you can convince me you're a penguin." Tacky knew he was in trouble now. His shirt was his sail. And without his shirt, how would he get home?
Would he ever see Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect again?
"Hurry up now. I'm hungry
and I don't have all day," snapped Rocky impatiently. "Prove you're a penguin. Do something penguinish." Tacky thought very hard. He just had to show her. "Oh yes," he remembered. "Penguins march."
He began, 1, 2, 3 . .. stepped in the catsup bowl
without knowing it ... and continued marching over the table ... 4, 5, 17, 100. "What else?" asked Rocky.
"Penguins belly-slide."
Tacky got a running start, skidded across the lemon pie, and swished in swirls over the tablecloth. Mmmm. Where was that lemon smell coming from? "Go on," ordered Rocky.
"Penguins dive."
Tacky took a bounding leap up and did a splashy cannonball into the pitcher of grape punch. Refreshing! More confused than convinced, Rocky asked,
"And ... ? Keep going."
What else? What else could a penguin do? Then he remembered what had gotten him into this situation in the first place, and he said, "Penguins are excellent hoppers." Bravely
tilting his beak up in his best proper hopping form, he hopped in the gravy
and hopped on the cloth
and hopped in the mustard and hopped on the cloth
and hopped in the marmalade and hopped on the cloth
and hopped ... in ... the peanut butter . . . and ... stopped.
Then he waddled stickily over to Rocky. "See?" he shrugged hopefully. "I'm a penguin." Rocky looked at her red, yellow, purple, brown, gold, orange, and tan tablecloth and bellowed, "What have you done to my tablecloth?"
Tacky froze. He had been having fun doing Penguin things, and hadn't even realized that he'd made a mess.
"Uh oh," he thought. "I'm stuck here forever. I'll never get home to my iceberg."
"My tablecloth! My tablecloth!" hooted Rocky. "I love it, I simply love it!
Look at those colors! They're brilliant!
They're beautiful! And they're so much prettier than
your blossoms! No offense. Here you go, you wonderful, odd whatever-you-are."
With that she picked up Tacky's shirt and flipped it to him. She also threw him a hot dog, a cookie, and three kisses. "THANK YOU!" she trumpeted as Tacky waved good-bye and set out for the water's edge.
He leapt onto a log, thinking, "I didn't know ice blocks came in brown," and as his shirt caught the wind he set sail. Meanwhile, back on the iceberg, Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect were singing "Sunrise on the Iceberg." The sun rose, but they didn't feel in charge. Life just hadn't been the same without Tacky. Everything was so orderly, and they were tired of patting each other on the back and whispering,
"What is happening?" Nothing was happening.
Then they saw the speck in the distance. Could it be?
As the speck came closer and closer they could see it was Tacky!
Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect hugged Tacky. Tacky was an odd bird, but a nice bird to have around.
And many miles away an elephant sat by her colorful tablecloth and thought the same thing.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Features

Character traits

Simple Plot

Topic

Travel/Traveling

*Feelings, Behaviors

Low Frequency Words

activities	adventures	blared	catsup	coasted
companions	convinced	dreary	excellent	eyed
galumphed	gleefully	goodly	gorgeous	hearty
honestly	impatiently	indeedy	knowing	leapt
marmalade	meanwhile	mellow	mustard	offense
overjoyed	penguin	penguinish	penguins	plunked
prettier	prickle	prove	refreshing	shrugged
situation	skidded	snatched	splashy	squishy
starlit	stickily	surfing	suspiciously	swirls
swished	tablecloth	tacky	tilting	truly
trumpeted	uncomfortably	waddled	weird