Text Leveling System

Nate the Great and the Boring Beach Bag

RDQ:	472	Max Word/Sent	29	Total Words	2031		Diff Words	374
Lex	630	Ave Word/.Sent	6	Hi Freq occurs	1403	69.1%	Hi freq	173	46.3%
AR	2.6	Long Sentences	2	Low Freq occurs	28	1.4%	Low freq	12	3.2%

I, Nate, the great detective, was swimming in the ocean with my dog, Sludge. ]]
Someone was swimming behind us. It was Oliver. Oliver is always behind me. Oliver is a pest. He swam up beside me. "I lost my seashell," he said. "I want you to find it." "I, Nate the Great, do not look for seashells. ]]
If I did, I could find plenty of them on this beach." "The seashell was in my beach bag," Oliver said. "But that is gone, too." "Your beach bag is gone?"
"Yes," Oliver said. "My clothes and shoes were in it." "Your clothes and shoes, too? You need clothes. You need shoes. You need me.]]
 I, Nate the Great, will take your case." Sludge, Oliver, and I swam to shore. We sat down on the sand.]]
I took a pencil and a piece of paper out of my swimsuit pocket. I wrote a note to my mother. It was soggy and sandy. I hoped she could read it. ]]
Dear Mother, I am on a soggy and sandy case. I will be back before you get this note. I am sending it with Sludge. Love, Nate the Great. I put the note in Sludge's mouth.
"Take this home and then come back," I said. Don't stop to eat along the way."
Sludge ran off with the note. I hoped he would be back soon.]]
I hoped he would be back. Oliver and I walked along the beach. "Show me where you last saw your beach bag," I said. "I left it on the beach," Oliver said, "while I bought a glass of water at Rosamond's Restaurant." "Rosamond has a restaurant?" "Yes. She is selling water, seaweed soup, and sandwiches. The sandwiches are filled with sand. She said that
since they are called sandwiches, they should be made of sand." "It figures," I said.]]
Oliver stopped. "When I got back to where I left my beach bat, it was gone. And here is where I left it." "How do you know that?" I asked. "Because I left my beach ball ]]
beside it. And see, my beach ball is still here. Nobody took it."
"If someone took your beach bag, why would they leave your beach ball?" I asked. "Was there something special about your beach bag? What did it look like?" "It was blue. It was blank. It was boring," Oliver said. "And it was bumpy from all the stuff inside it." I, Nate the Great, looked down at the beach ball and the sand around it.
"The sand is not pressed down where your beach bag was," I said, "even though the bag was heavy with clothes, shoes, and a shell inside it."
"Is that a clue?" Oliver asked. "It may be an important clue or no clue at all," I said. "Sand gets kicked around. Tell me, were you alone when you left your beach bag here?"]]
"I was sitting all by myself, Oliver said. "then I saw Annie and her dog, Fang, running toward me. Whenever I see Fang running toward me, I run, too. I run away. I ran to Rosamond's Restaurant." "We will have to walk to Rosamond's Restaurant," I said.]]
"We will look for clues and your boring beach bag along the way." Oliver and I started to walk. The sun felt hot on my back.]]
The sun felt scratchy between my toes. I was careful not to step on sand castles
or ice cream sticks. I ducked beach balls in the air.]]
I looked for Oliver's beach bag. I also looked for Sludge. He should have been back by now. We passed a refreshment stand. I wondered if they served pancakes. I wanted to stop. But I had a case to solve. I saw Rosamond up ahead. She was sitting behind a crate. Sometimes people get strange ]]
sitting under a hot sun. But Rosamond is strange all the time. Rosamond's four cats were asleep on the crate. Oliver and I walked up to her. "Have you seen Oliver's boring beach bag?" I asked.]]
"No," Rosamond said. "I have been too busy with my restaurant. Want to buy a sandwich or soup or a glass of water?" "No. I must find the beach bag. Oliver has no clothes, no shoes, and no seashell." "Oh, dear," Rosamond said. "I will give him some free water. And part of a sandwich." Rosamond handed Oliver a glass of sandy water. I knew it was time to leave. Oliver and I started to walk back to where he said he had left his beach bag.]]
"I did not find your beach bag between where you left it
and Rosamond's Restaurant," I said. "I also did not find my dog."
I, Nate the Great, was thinking. Sludge must have stopped somewhere to eat.
That sounded like a good idea. "I am going to stop
at the refreshment stand," I said.
I walked up to the refreshment stand. Oliver followed me.
Then he stopped. Suddenly I knew why.
Annie's dog, Fang, was tied to a post beside the stand.]]
His teeth gleamed under the bright sun. He looked hungry.
He looked at me.
I did not want to stay. But Annie was there.
Perhaps she had seen Oliver's bag.
I talked fast.
"I am looking for Oliver's beach bag," I said.
"It looks boring. Have you seen it?"]]
"Yes, it was beside a beach ball," Annie said. "Fang and I ran by it, 
just as Oliver ran off. Fang and I are running from one end of the beach to the other.]]
I stopped for a snack.
But Fang is trying to lose weight. He is on a diet."
"He is eating the post you tied him to," I said.
"But that is not on his diet!" Annie cried.
She rushed to Fang and untied him.
"Is a beach bag on his diet?" I asked.
"Not today," Annie said.]]
Annie and Fang ran off.
They ran in the opposite direction from Rosamond's Restaurant.
Fang was not so hungry that he would eat a sandwich made of sand.
I, Nate the Great, was hungry.
I ate some pancakes at the refreshment stand and thought about the case.
There was not much to think about.
I did not have one clue that I knew was a clue.
I also did not have a dog. Where was Sludge?
Suddenly I saw him on the beach.]]
He was with Oliver.
I finished my pancakes fast.
I went up to Sludge and Oliver. Sludge was still holding my note in his mouth.
He looked hot and tired.]]
"You were supposed to take that note home," I said.
Perhaps Sludge did not know where home was.
The beach looks the same for miles and miles.
Sand and water.
All that sand
and all that water]]
must have mixed him up. Sludge sat down and rested. Oliver and I sat with him. Then Sludge ran into the water to cool off. The water. 
I had been looking for Oliver's beach bag on land.
But what if it was in the water?]]
I ran into the water. I swam here.
I swam there.
I looked and looked for Oliver's beach bag.
All of a sudden I saw it!
It was bobbing in the water up ahead.
A bump.
A big blue bump.
Sludge and I swam up to it. I grabbed it.
It was not Oliver's beach bag. It was Esmeralda's head.
"What are you doing?" she asked. "I am looking for Oliver's]]
beach bag," I said.
"Oliver!" cried Esmeralda. "I am hiding from him.
He follows me everywhere. On land. On sea. And here he comes! Esmeralda swam away.]]
Oliver swam up.
"Did you find my beach bag?" he asked. 
"Not yet, " I said. 
"I will follow you
until you solve the case," Oliver said.
"And even after I solve the case," I said.
Sludge and I swam to shore.]]
Oliver swam to shore. Sludge and I stretched out on the sand.
Oliver stretched out on the sand behind us.
He had given me a tough case. Nobody had given me any clues.]]
Or had they?
There was no dent in the sand from Oliver's beach bag.
What if it meant something? What if it meant that Oliver's beach bag
had never been there? But Oliver said it had. What else did he say?
He said that Annie and Fang were running toward him just before he left
his beach bag and beach ball]]
and ran to Rosamond's Restaurant. I, Nate the Great, got a stick.
I smoothed out some sand. Then I drew a map in it.
I marked where Oliver's beach ball was. I marked Rosamond's Restaurant.
I marked the refreshment stand, which was between them.
I had seen Annie and Fang at the refreshment stand.
Annie said that they were running from one end of the beach
to the other.]]
She said they had run past Oliver's beach bag and ball. I looked at my map.
First there was the beach ball. Then the refreshment stand. Then Rosamond's Restaurant. When Annie and Fang left the refreshment stand, they should have run
toward Rosamond's Restaurant. But they ran in the opposite direction. Why?
I, Nate the Great, was stumped. I looked at Sludge. Sludge always helps with my cases. But all the sand and water had mixed him up this time. Did Annie and Fang get mixed up? No. Annie would not get mixed up. I looked at Oliver. It would be easy
for him to get mixed up.]]
He was always following someone. I kicked some sand. I ducked a beach ball. I thought. Hmm. "Oliver," I said. "I think I know where your beach bag is. Follow me."
"Of course," Oliver said.]]
Sludge and I walked to Rosamond's Restaurant.
We walked past Rosamond's Restaurant. "Wait!" Oliver said.
"You are going very far away from where I left my beach bag."
I, Nate the Great, kept on walking. Up ahead I saw something in the sand.]]
I ran up to it.
It was a beach bag. It was blue.
It was blank. It was bumpy. It was boring.]]
It was Oliver's beach bag. "My beach bag!" Oliver cried. "What is it doing here?"
"It was always here," I said. "No one took it. But someone took your beach ball. Someone picked it up and threw it. Or kicked it. Or carried it.
And I think it got thrown or kicked again and again.]
It landed a long way from where you left it.
The sand was not pressed down next to where you found
your beach ball because your beach bag had never been there.
But Annie gave me the big clue.
She and Fang are running from one end of the beach to the other.
I saw them run ]]
toward the place where you said you had left your beach bag and ball.
But she had already seen your ball and bag.
How could she see them when she had not yet reached the place where you said you had left them? She or you had to be wrong."
"So you picked me?" Oliver asked. "Yes, I, Nate the Great, picked you. After someone almost hit me ]]
on the head with a beach ball.
That is when I thought that the ball, not the bag, had moved.
You left your beach bag and beach ball here.
You went to Rosamond's Restaurant over there. Then what did you do?" "I drank my glass of water
and followed Esmeralda," Oliver said. "When I saw my beach ball, I stopped." "I, Nate the Great, say that
you followed Esmeralda away from where you left your bag and ball.
When you saw your ball ]]
you thought you were back at where you had left it.
It is easy to get mixed up on the beach.
If you are following someone, it is even easier.
The case is solved."
"I will never follow anyone again," Oliver said.]]
"Good," I said. "Sludge and I are going for a swim."
"I just changed my mind," Oliver said.
"I knew it," I said. I, Nate the Great, and Sludge,
and Oliver, of course, dove into the water.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Simple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

Features

Integral Setting

Simple Plot

First Person

Topic

Mystery

Beach

*Family & Friends

Low Frequency Words

detective	esmeralda	esmeralda's	figures	opposite
refreshment	restaurant	sludge	sludge's	smoothed
stumped	swimsuit