Text Leveling System

It's Halloween. I'm Turning Green.

RDQ:	968	Max Word/Sent	33	Total Words	3183		Diff Words	762
Lex	730	Ave Word/.Sent	7	Hi Freq occurs	2323	73%	Hi freq	334	43.8%
AR	3.6	Long Sentences	3.1	Low Freq occurs	145	4.6%	Low freq	95	12.5%

Tomorrow Isn't Now.
My name is AJ., and I hate October 30.
If you ask me, October 30 is the worst
day of the year. You know why? Because
I'm not allowed to eat any candy on that
day. We have these giant bags of candy all
over the house, and my mom won't let me
touch them.
"No candy, AJ.!" she always says on]]
October 30. "That candy is for the trick or
treaters."
"Oh, come on, Mom! Can I have just
one piece?"
"No! You can have all the candy you
want tomorrow."
"Yeah, but tomorrow isn't now!"
I hate tomorrow. Tomorrow is the worst
day of the week, because it isn't here yet.
Waiting for tomorrow feels like forever.
The good thing is, tomorrow is also
the best day of the week, because the day
after the. worst day of the year is the best
day of the year: Halloween! You can eat
all the candy you want, and nobody can
stop you!
The other reason I don't like October]]
30 is because it's Mischief Night. Teenagers
in our town go around .throwing
 eggs, soaping up windows, ringing doorbells,
and doing other mean stuff.
At seven o'clock I went to peek out the
front window to make sure our house was
safe. And you'll never believe in a million
hundred years what I saw outside.
Our trees were covered with toilet
paper!
Somebody TP'd our house! Can you
believe that? What a mean thing to do!
And I knew exactly who did it, too.
Andrea Young.
She is this girl with curly brown hair in
my class at school.* It  had to be Andrea!
*Well, she has curly brown hair wherever she goes.]]
She hates me. Last year me and the guys TP'd her house. Now she was getting me back.
Well, two can play at that game, Andrea. 
Revenge will be mine, and revenge will be
sweet.]]
My Secret Plan
I grabbed a bar of soap from our bathroom
sink. My secret plan was to go over to
Andrea's house and soap up her windows.
That would show her who's boss. Nobody
TP's my house and gets away with it.
I knew that my mom would never let
me go out so late to soap up Andrea's]]
windows. I would have to come up with
another reason to get out of the house.
"Mom, can I go over to Ryan's house for
a few minutes?" I asked. "I need to get our
homework assignment for tonight."
"Okay," she said, "but why do you have
a bar of soap in your hand?"
"Uh . .. I may have to wash my hands,"
I lied.
"A.J., I'm sure Ryan has soap at his
house."
"I don't like Ryan's soap," I told her. It
smells stinky."
"Why don't you just wash your hands
right here and then go over to Ryan's
house?" Mom asked.]]
"My hands might get dirty while I'm
over there," I explained. "Ryan's house is
really filthy."
"Just go, A.J.," my mom said as she
rubbed her forehead with her fingers.
Yes! I win! If you can get your mom or
dad to rub their forehead with their fingers,
they'll agree to just about anything.
That's the first rule of being a kid.
Ryan lives down the street from me. I
ran over to his house as fast as I could so
I wouldn't be attacked by any monsters
along the way. You never know when
there might be monsters out, roaming the
streets.
I told Ryan my secret plan to soap up]]
Andrea's windows. He told his mom
that he needed to go to my house to get
tonight's homework assignment. It took
some convincing, but finally she rubbed
her forehead with her fingers and said he
could go. Little did she know that we were
going to Andrea's house to do a little mischief.
Ryan and I sneaked down the street
like  secret agents, hiding behind cars and
trees so we wouldn't get caught. It was
cool.
"I'm traveling incognito," I whispered to
Ryan.
"What's a cognito?"
"How should I know?" I said. "But secret]]
agents always travel in them."*
After walking a million hundred miles,
we finally reached Andrea's street.
"This is gonna be great!" Ryan whispered.
We crept up to Andrea's front window.
*It means "in disguise." See, you actually learned something
from this book. So this isn't just a dumb story. It's
educational!]]
I reached into my pocket.
I took out the bar of soap.
And just as I was about to rub the soap
all over the window, I saw the most horrible,
revolting, disgusting creature I have
ever encountered in my life.
It was Andrea!
 Ryan and I screamed.
"What are you doing over here, Arlo?"
asked Andrea as she lifted up the window.
She calls me by my real name because she
knows I don't like it. Uh nothing," I said. "We were, uh
bird-watching."
"Yeah," Ryan agreed. "We were watching
birds. I think I just saw a yellow-bellied
sapsucker in that tree over there."]]
"You were going to soap up my windows!
 Andrea said, pointing her finger
at me.
"Who, me? ,, I said. "Don't be ridiculous!
I would never do a thing like that."
"You would too, Arlo ! ''
"Would not!"
"Would too!"
We went back and forth like that for a
while.
"If you didn't come over here to soap
up my windows, then what are you doing
standing outside my window with soap in
your hand?" Andrea demanded. "Arlo, this
is probably the first time you ever used
soap in your life."]]
"Oh, snap!" said Ryan. "She just said
you're a dirty, disgusting pig. But not in
those words. Are you gonna take that,
AJ.?"
"You TP'd my house!" I said, pointing
my finger at Andrea.
"I did not!"
"You did too!"
We went back and forth like that for a
while, until Andrea turned around and
started shouting to her parents.
"Mom! Dad! Some creepy boys are outside
on the front lawn!"
. "Run for it!" I shouted to Ryan.
We bolted out of there as fast as we
could go.]]
The Gang's All
Here
I never did get to soap up Andrea's windows
that night. But it was okay. Because
the next morning it was Halloween. The
best day of the year!
At school, Mr. Granite was trying to
teach us all kinds of stuff, but I wasn't
paying attention. I couldn't concentrate]]
on any thing he was saying. All I could
think about was candy. I couldn't wait for
the bell to ring. It felt like the clock was
going backward.
But finally it was three o'clock. I ran
home to put on my Halloween costume.
In our town, you're not allowed to start
trick-or-treating until four o'clock in the
afternoon. Bummer in the summer! I
would have to wait even longer to get the
candy.
Me and the gang had decided we would
all combine two or more things together
in our costumes. I had an old Star Wars
costume in the closet, and my sister, Amy,
let me use the deer costume she wore]]
last year. So this Halloween I was going
to be ...
Darth Bambi!
Pretty good, huh? No wonder I'm in the
gifted and talented program.
One by one, the gang came over so we 
could all go trick-or-treating together.
"Who are you?" my mother asked everybody
as they came to the door.
"I'm a flying robot ninja from outer
space," said Michael, who never ties his
shoes.
"I'm a mutant zombie pirate," said Ryan,
who will eat anything, even stuff that isn't
food.
"I'm a skateboarding hippie dinosaur,"]]
said Alexia, who skateboards everywhere
she goes.
Next came Neil, who we call the nude
kid even though he wears clothes. None
of us had any idea what he was dressed
up as.
"I'm a flying mutant pirate hobo ninja
robot dinosaur," said Neil, "from outer
space."]]
That's just too much stuff.
"We're traveling incognito," I told, my
mom.
" you all look so spooky!" my
mom said.
That's when the most amazing thing in
the history of the world happened.
The doorbell rang.
Well, that's not the amazing part,
because doorbells ring all the time. The
amazing part was what happened next.
"AJ., answer the door, pl ease," my
mother said. "It must be our first trick-or treater.
I'll get the candy."
But it wasn't our first trick-or-treater.
It was my friend Billy, who lives around]]
the corner. Billy goes to another school.
I invited him to go trick- or-treating
with us.
The amazing part was that when I
opened the door, Billy was standing there
in his underwear! You should have been
there. It was hilarious. Anything to do
with underwear is hilarious. That's the
first rule of being a kid.
"That's your costume, Billy?" my mom
asked with her hands on her hips.
"You've heard of the werewolf," said Billy.
"Well, I'm the underwerewolf!"
He made scary noises and posed like a
werewolf. It was still hilarious. It's hard to
look scary when you're in your underwear.]]
The fact is, Billy goes as the underwerewolf
every Halloween. If you ask me, Billy
just likes to parade around in his underwear.
Billy's weird.
It was a quarter to four. We couldn't go]]
trick-or-treating yet, so we went into the
den to fool around with my dad's computer.
I wanted to go on YouTube and
watch videos of cats playing the piano,
but Michael had another idea. He went to
Google Maps and typed in the address of
my house.
"Okay, here's my plan for maximum
candy accumulation," Michael said as
he moved his finger across the screen.
"People on Maple Street give out the best
candy, so we should head over there first.
Then we can turn left on Pine Street and
hit Hickory, Elm, and Sycamore Street.
The people on Evergreen Avenue never
have any good candy, so we should skip]]
that street. . . ."
Michael is a genius when it comes to
trick-or-treating strategy. After he was
finished plotting our route, we printed out
the map so we wouldn't get lost.
It was a few minutes before four o'clock.
My mom gave us old pillowcases we could
use to hold our candy. Billy gathered us
all around him like a football team in a
huddle.
"Okay, dudes," he said. "What do we
want?"
"Candy!" we all shouted.
"I can't hear you! What do we want?"
"CANDY!" we shouted louder.
"When do we want it?" Billy asked.]]
"Now!"
"How much candy do we want?" Billy asked.
"A lot!"
"Where do we want it?" Billy asked.
"In our mouths!" we shouted. "In our
 tummies!"
"That's right!" Billy said. "This is going
to be the greatest Halloween in the history
of the world!"
The clock in the hall struck four.
"It's time!" we all screamed as we
charged out the door. "Let's go! Candy!
Candy! Candy!"]]
The Rules of
Halloween
We followed Michael's map until we came
to the first house on Maple Street. We all
ran up the front steps. Alexia rang the
doorbell. A bald guy opened the door.
"Oob!" we all shouted.
"Ooh?" the bald guy said. "Don' t you
mean boo?"]]
"'Oob is boo backward," I told him.
Saying stuff backward is cool.*
"Treat or trick!" yelled Ryan.
"I guess you mean trick or treat," the
Cool backward is "looc." "Stuff' backward is "ffuts."
"Backward" backward is "drawkcab."]]
bald guy said. "Well, what's the trick?"
We all looked at each other. Nobody
knew any tricks. It had never come up
before. People always gave us candy, no
questions asked. Maybe this guy just
came to America a few days ago, and he
didn't know how Halloween worked yet.
"You're supposed to give us candy," I
explained to the guy. "Then we leave."
"What if I don't have any candy?" the
guy asked. "You're supposed to play a
trick on me."
"We don't have any tricks," Neil told
him.
"Well, I don't have any candy," the guy
replied.]]
"How can you not have candy?" asked
Alexia. "It's Halloween."
"Yeah, don't you know the rules of Halloween,
mister? I asked.
"I ate all my candy yesterday," the
guy told us. "I have a sweet tooth, and I
couldn't resist."
Some people just don't get Halloween. I
bet that guy had plenty of candy, but he
just wanted to give us a hard time. I'm not
sure I would want his candy anyway.
We got out of there fast. That guy was
weird.]]
Ghosts, Goblins,
and Ghouls
"oh!" we shouted when we came to the
next house. "Treat or trick!"
The old lady who answered the door
was wearing an apron. She held out a big
basket full of candy.
"You can each take one, she said.]]
"Can I take two7" Ryan asked.
"Okay, okay, you can take two," she
agreed.
"Can I take three?" I asked.
"No."
That lady was mean.
We went up and down Maple Street,
grabbing fistfuls of Kit Kats, M&M'S,
Smarties, Warheads, Hershey's bars, Jolly
Ranchers, Life Savers, Reese's Pieces,
York Peppermint Patties, Mounds, Jelly
Bellies ....
Well, you get the idea.
I wanted to start eating my candy right
away, but Michael and Billy said we should
 get a whole bunch of candy before we]]
started eating any of it. After we cleaned
out all the houses on Maple Street, we
moved on to Pine Street.
"My pillowcase is getting heavy!" complained
Alexia.
"Mine too," agreed Neil the nude kid.
"I say we should eat some of our candy
now," suggested Ryan. "Then our pillowcases
won't feel so heavy."
What a genius! We could eat candy and
lighten our pillowcases at the same time.
Ryan should get the No Bell Prize for that
idea. That's a prize they give out to people
who don't have bells.]]
We stopped on the corner and took 
a break. I had a Laffy Taffy. Ryan had a
Mars bar. Billy had a Snickers. Michael
had some Tootsie Rolls. Neil had some
Starburst. Yum!
I still can't get over the fact that on Halloween
people just hand you candy, and
you don't even have to pay for it or anything. What a scam! We all agreed that
Halloween is the best holiday of all the
holidays, and this was the greatest day of
our lives.
By now the streets were filled with lots
of kids out trick-or-treating. We saw some
pretty scary-looking costumes. There
were kids dressed like ghosts, goblins,]]
ghouls, zombies, and hunchbacks.
I saw these two kids who were really 
scary. One of them didn't have a head,
 and the other one had two heads! That
Was weird. But right after that, I saw the
most hideous, horrifying creature in the
history of the world.
It was Andrea Young!
Ugh, disgusting! She was walking
toward us. And she was with her crybaby
 friend Emily. Just once I wish I could go
someplace without bumping into those
two.
"I'm a witch," Andrea announced, as if
But not really, because they averaged out to one head for
each of them.]]
we couldn't figure it out from the pointy
hat, broomstick, and wart on her nose.
She spun around so we could see her costume
in all its glory.
"You look even uglier than usual," I told
Andrea.
"Oh, snap!" said Ryan.
"I'm a witch too; said Emily, who always
does everything Andrea does.
"We're good witches, not bad witches,"
Andrea informed us.
"You should put bread on either side of
you," I suggested. "Then you'd be a sandwich."
"Very funny, Arlo," Andrea said, rolling
her eyes.]]
"I'm a mutant zombie pirate," said Ryan .
"I'm the underwerewolf!" said Billy.]]
"My mom told me that violent costumes
 are inappropriate for children," Andrea
said. "They could lead to violent behavior."
"Your mom is weird," I told Andrea.
"Look," Michael said. "We don't have
time to make chitchat with you two.
There's a lot of candy out there, and we
want to go get it."
"Oh, I don't care about getting a lot of
candy," Andrea told us. "I'm going to donate
any candy I collect to the poor. There are
a lot of children who can' t afford candy."
"They don't have to afford candy!"
Alexia said. "It's free"
"Yeah," I said. "They can go out on the
street and get it, just like us!]]
"That's not the point, Arlo," Andrea said .
The point is to help people. Hey, why
don' t you join us, and we'll donate all our
candy to poor people?"
"Are you crazy?" Neil said. "We're keeping
our candy. The candy we get tonight
is going to last us all year."
"Yeah," said Michael, showing Andrea
the map he made. "We have a plan for
maximum candy accumulation."
"That's too bad," said Andrea. "This
morning I was in the computer room
at school, and Mrs. Yonkers told me to
make sure I come and trick-or-treat at her
house. She said she would have a magical
Halloween surprise treat that we couldn't]]
get anywhere else in the world."
WHAT!? A magical Halloween surprise
treat that we couldn't get anywhere else
in the world?
I looked at Michael. Michael looked
at Ryan. Ryan looked at Alexia. Alexia
looked at Neil. Neil looked at Billy. Billy
looked at me.
In case you were wondering, we were
all looking at each other.
"Let's go!" we shouted.]]
The Halloween
Monster
We all followed Andrea so we could go to
Mrs. Yonkers's house and get the magical
Halloween surprise treat. She made a
left at Avondale Avenue. Then she made
a right at Redman Road. Then she made a
left at West End Street.
Those streets weren't on Michael's map.
I didn't know where we were anymore.]]
Andrea looked a little confused. It seemed
like she didn't know where she was either.
"Where does Mrs. Yonkers live anyway?"
I asked her.
"I know her house is around here somewhere,"
Andrea said. "Maybe it's down this
street."
But it wasn't down that street. And it wasn't
down the next street either. We
 passed by a big field. The houses were getting
farther apart.
We must have walked a million hundred
miles. We didn't find Mrs. Yonkers's
house, and we weren't even getting
candy anymore. This wasn't fun at all.
The sun was going down. Soon it would
be dark out.]]
Suddenly, Andrea stopped.
"I'm lost," she admitted.
"Lost?" asked Emily. She looked like she
was going to cry.
"I don't know which way to go," said
Andrea. "I'm scared."
To be honest with you, I was a little
scared myself.
But part of me was happy that we were
lost. In school, Little Miss Know-It-All
never makes any mistakes. She's always in
control of everything. Now we were lost,
and it was all Andrea's fault. Ha! It was
kind of fun to watch her freak out for a
change.
"Y 'know," I said. "this is just the kind
of neighborhood where the Halloween

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Headings

Footnotes

Features

Topic

Stealing

Costumes

Candy

*Holidays, Events, Cele

Halloween

Low Frequency Words

accumulation	agents	announced	assignment	averaged
avondale	bellied	charged	chitchat	cognito
concentrate	convincing	darth	disguise	doorbells
drawkcab	dudes	ease	encountered	fault
ffuts	fistfuls	gang's	genius	ghouls
glory	goblins	gonna	google	granite
halloween	hickory	hideous	hilarious	hippie
honest	horrifying	hunchbacks	inappropriate	incognito
informed	lied	lighten	looc	magical
maple	maximum	mischief	mounds	mutant
neighborhood	nude	patties	peppermint	pillowcases
posed	redman	reese's	resist	revenge
revolting	ridiculous	roaming	route	ryan
ryan's	sapsucker	scam	skateboarding	skateboards
smarties	snickers	soaping	starburst	strategy
sycamore	teenagers	tonight's	tootsie	tp'd
tp's	treater	uglier	underwear	underwerewolf
violent	warheads	wart	wears	weird
werewolf	yonkers	youtube	zombie	zombies