Text Leveling System

The Not So Jolly Roger

RDQ:	1021	Max Word/Sent	44	Total Words	3116		Diff Words	837
Lex	740	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	2232	71.6%	Hi freq	354	42.3%
AR	3.7	Long Sentences	4.8	Low Freq occurs	147	4.7%	Low freq	108	12.9%

ONE
I thought you said you read The Book," said
Sam.
I looked over at Sam and Fred swaying in the
tops of the two coconut trees next to mine. We
were thirty feet above the ground. I grabbed my
tree tighter. "I did," I said weakly. I closed my
eyes so I couldn't see just how far up we were.
"Well, what happened this time, Mr. Magic?"
asked Fred. "We didn't even open The Book!
We were just goofing around in your room. Now
we're making like monkeys in the tops of some
trees on a deserted island."
"Maybe it was something you said," said Sam.
Waves crashed on the beach. I smelled the salt
 air. I opened one eye to look at Sam and Fred.
Sam's glasses hung from one ear. Fred's Mets
cap was twisted backward. They did kind of look]]
like monkeys hugging coconuts. If I hadn't
 been so scared, I would have laughed.
 "I said I read The Book. I
didn't say I understood it."
"Oh, great," said Sam, trying to
hang on to his coconut and fix his
glasses at the same time. "So you're
telling us you don't know where we are?"
I looked out at the long stretch of blue
ocean. The hot sun hung high in the blue
sky. I tried to guess what time it might be.
"Where we are? I don't even know when we
are. "
screamed Sam.
A red and blue parrot flew by and screeched
back.
"We're lost," moaned Sam. "Shipwrecked.
Castaways. Robinson Crusoes in time and space.
We have no idea where or when we are.

"Get a grip," said Fred. "I wished for buried
treasure. The Book sent us here." Fred started
to climb down his tree. "It doesn't take Einstein
to figure it out. Somewhere around here there's
buried treasure."]]
"We are going to die," said Sam. Don't say
I didn't warn you. Because where there's buried
treasure, there's pirates. We are dead meat. Shark
food."
"Well, look at the bright side," said
Fred. "If you 're dead, you won't
have to go to school Monday."
Sam gave his glasses a push.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. You're so funny, I
forgot to laugh."
Fred started to slide down the
tree trunk. "What's the big deal? We find the
treasure, dig it up, Joe says the hocus-pocus
stuff, and we go back home millionaires."
"Well ... " I said.
"What's this 'well?' " said Sam. "I don't like
the sound of this 'well.' "
"Well, The Book says there are a lot of ways
to travel in time," I said. "But the only way to
 get back to our time is to find the person who
 has The Book in this time."
"But what about the All-Purpose Time Warper
Spell?" said Fred.
I shook my head. "It only works going backward.
We have to find The Book to get home."]]
Sam knocked his head on the nearest coconut.
"Oh, fine. That's just fine. I mean, that should
be easy. Thanks to lame-brain treasure hunter
here, there aren't that many people to ask for
The Book. Let's see   we could ask this coconut.
We could ask that sea gull. We could ask
the ocean. We could ask the ... oh, no."
"What's an ono?" I asked.
Sam pointed out to the ocean.
We could just see the front of a sailing ship
appearing from around the edge of the island.
"Hey, it looks like a ship," said Fred.
"Three guesses what kind of ship, Einstein,"
said Sam. "And the first two don't count."
We clutched our trees and watched the front
of the ship turn into what looked like a huge
wooden ocean liner. Except this ocean liner had
cannons. And it was flying a flag from its mast
black flag with a white skull.
 "Oh, no," said Fred.
He went back up
the tree. Fast.]]
TWO
while the pirates drop anchor and load their
rowboat, maybe I should back up and explain
how we three guys happened to find ourselves
up in the coconut trees and in big trouble two
hundred and seventy-five years before our time.
It was just a week after the last time we travelled
through time. And that was more than a thousand
 years before this time, which is a later time
if you're just reading this for the first time in
your own time, which oh, forget it. Let me
start one more time.
Last week (my time), I got a birthday present
from my uncle Joe. Uncle Joe is a magician. He
 gave me a book. It had strange silver writing on
the front that said The Book. When Fred
opened The Book, it transported my two best
friends (Fred and Sam) and me to King Arthur's]]
time. We met a bunch of knights, a dragon, a
giant, and stuff like that. But you can read about
that some other time.
To get back to this time, the week after we got
back to our time, Fred and Sam came over to
my house to check out The Book again.
"I've been thinking about this time travel
stuff," said Fred. "And I think we should go
somewhere worth our while." Fred sat on my
bed, still wearing his baseball uniform, tossing
his baseball up and catching it. "Kids in those
magic books I've read are always so dumb. They
always wish for exciting adventures or some garbage
like that. And they never take anything useful
with them-like a machine gun or a jet. I say
we wish for a pile of money and come back
millionaires."]]
Sam looked up from his comic book. "No way.
It will never work. If you had ever made it to
the end of any of those magic books, you would
know that magic is very tricky. Like Joe's uncle
said, be careful what you wish for. You might
get it. We could wish for a pile of money, end
up in a bank, and get shot by Jesse James."
I sat at my desk, trying to perfect my disappearing
quarter trick. "Sam's right. It's not like
faking people out with coin tricks. Let's just be
a little more careful this time and figure out exactly
what we're going to wish for.
I looked at the midnight-blue book on my
desk.]]
"Magic can backfire on you even when you're
trying to do good," said Sam. "And it will definitely
mess you up if you are greedy."
"So, Mr. Know-It-All, what do you want to
wish for?" asked Fred, pulling his baseball cap
down over his eyes.
"I think we should go visit some famous historical
figure and see what they were really
like."
Fred threw his ball up to the ceiling and caught
it. "Go visit some famous historical figure? Get
out of here! You should be in one of those other
lame magic books with all the other stiffs. Who
wants to go visit famous dead guys?"
Sam pushed his glasses up. "I do."
"Get a life," said Fred. "So we go visit George
Washington. We come back. What do we got?
Nothing. But, we go visit buried treasure. We
come back. What do we got? Millions!"
"Oh, that's brilliant, Sherlock. This is the same
kind of bright idea that almost got us executed
last time. Did you ever stop to think who buries
treasure? Pirates, that's who. And do you know
what pirates usually have? Pistols and cutlasses,]]
that's what. And do you know what they do with
those pistols and cutlasses? Shoot and stab people
who are trying to steal their treasure, that's
what."
"Come on," said Fred. "I took care of the
Black Knight, didn't I? What's a few pirates? Joe,
you got any pictures of buried treasure in that
book?"
I stuck the quarter in my pocket and picked
up The Book. "No."
"So there," said Sam.
Fred cocked his arm to throw his baseball at
Sam.
"But there is this spell called the All Purpose
Time Warper:
Hickory dickory dock.
Mouse, turn back the clock.
The clock won't strike.
To go where we like-"
"Buried treasure," yelled Fred.
"No, you jerk," yelled Sam.
Fred threw his baseball. Sam ducked. Wisps
of pale green mist began to swirl in my bedroom.]]
"But wait," I said, "the spell only works-"
Fred's baseball slowed and then froze in midair,
only inches away from my desk lamp.
The Book seemed to melt right out of my hand.
The green mist swirled faster and higher; covering
book, ball, bedroom, and all.]]
THREE
Oh, no is right," said Sam.
We looked around the island for somewhere
to hide. The choices were pretty slim: our three
trees, or one big black rock.
We climbed higher into our trees, and did our
best to look like coconuts. We couldn't see anything,
but we could hear the splash of oars and
bits of some truly awful singing.
What do you do with a drunken pirate?
What do you do with a drunken pirate?
What do you do with a drunken pirate
Early in the morning?
The small rowboat landed as I peeked through
the leaves. Two guys unloaded a chest. One was
tall. The other was short. Both wore ragged pants
and striped shirts. They were the ugliest and ]]
nastiest looking guys I've ever seen  until I saw
the third guy behind them. He was twice as big
and twice as nasty-looking.
He was the one with the awful singing voice,
and boy, did he have a face to match. Black hair
stuck out everywhere. His black eyebrows and
moustache bristled out front. Long black strands]]
fell down his back. And a monstrous black beard,
with four pigtails, braided and tied with ribbons
on the ends, fell down his chest. To top it all
off-the whole mess was smoking!
But the worst part about this guy was not his
crazy hair or black outfit. The worst part was
that he was equipped, just as Sam had predicted,
with four pistols and one wicked-looking cutlass.
"Bad luck," whispered Sam. "I'll bet anything
that's Blackbeard ... and not the Walt Disney
version."
"Who's Blackbeard?" Fred whispered from his
tree.
"His real name was Edward Teach," said Sam.
"Some people say he was the craziest and meanest
pirate of all time."
"Oh," said Fred.
The two ragged guys staggered up the beach
lugging the chest between them. The giant black
pirate counted off paces behind them.
"Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one.
Halt!"
They stopped right under our trees.
"Dig here, lads. We bury our treasure, and we
three be the only ones what know about it, eh?]]
Who says I don't treat me prisoners well? Have
another tot o' rum."
The big guy pulled a bottle out of one of the
deep pockets in his long coat. He took a swig,
and passed it around.
The two prisoners drank, then started digging.
The pirate leaned against my tree. The top of
his three-cornered hat was right below me. Something
in his hair was fizzing and smoking, and it
smelled terrible. I wiggled my nose as quietly as
I could, and tried not to think about sneezing.
The pirate jabbed the sand with his cutlass.
Then he started in with that singing again.
Come all you bold rascals what follow the sea,
To me way, hay, blow the man down,
Haul in yer sails and now listen to me,
And give me some time to ya de dee dee ...
"Just us three, eh, laddies? Not a soul around."
Sam and Fred looked at me and bugged their
eyes out.
The hot sun beat down. Flies buzzed around.
The prisoners drank and dug. The bearded pirate
kept singing-horribly. My foot, wedged behind
a coconut, went to sleep. My arms felt like they]]
were going next. Finally, after what seemed like
hours, the two guys finished digging. The pirate
slid his cutlass back in his belt.
"Yar, mates. That would be perfect. Now
lower her in there slowly, slowly ... "
While the two prisoners were lowering the
chest, the pirate pulled out two pistols and shot
them both.]]
The bodies and chest fell to the bottom of the
hole with an ugly thud. The crazy pirate laughed
and started croaking another song as he kicked
sand in the grave.
Sixteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum.
Drink and the Devil will do the rest.
Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum.
A drop of sweat rolled off my nose and fell
down toward the singing pirate. It landed right
on his hat. I closed my eyes and held my breath.
He stood up, looked all around, and said, "Just
us three, lads. Guard our secret well. Har, har,
har." And then he turned to go.
That's when the fly decided to land on Fred's
nose.
Fred wrinkled his nose, blinked, and shook his
head.
The fly flew.
Fred's Mets cap slid right off his head, spinning
down, down, down, until it landed with an awful
plop right at the toe of the pirate's big, black
boot.]]
He froze. He looked at the hat. Then he looked
slowly up, up, up the trunk of my tree. Our eyes
met and my heart went as numb as my foot. The
 black pirate growled,  and grinned
a crazy smile. I swear I saw his eyes flashing red.
Then he pulled out two pistols, aimed, and
fired.]]
FOUR
Click, went one pistol.
Click, went the other.
"Damnation and hellfire. Forgot to reload. But
you won't be going nowhere, will you now, lad?"
My brain thought about diving out of the tree.
My body refused.
The pirate tossed the two empty pistols aside
and reached for two more.
While he was reaching, Fred slid down the
trunk of his tree and jumped to the sand. "Don't
shoot! That's my hat."
The pirate whirled around and aimed the pistols
at Fred. "Yar this island be haunted, sure.
They're dropping from the trees. Quick, lad, how
many more of your kind up there?"
"Two," said Fred.
"Three against one? Why, those are the best]]
 odds I've had in a long time." He tucked away
 one pistol and drew his cutlass. "Call out the
rest of your spying monkeys. Let's fight to the
death and the Devil take the hindmost."]]
Suddenly Sam spoke up.
"But we can't fight you."
The pirate squinted up
into the trees. "What's
that? What do you mean
you can't fight? Why in
Hades not?"
"We can't fight you because  because
we'd lose our Magicians' License," said
Sam.
"What?"
"Yeah, that's it," said Fred. "We're magicians-
magicians from another time, and it's
against Magic Rules for us to mess with anyone
because we are so powerful."
"Magicians, eh?" The pirate itched his chin
with the barrel of his pistol. "I'm a bit of a magician
myself. See that coconut? I'll make it disappear."
He fired his pistol. The coconut Fred
had been sitting behind exploded i
in a shower of milk and
shredded coconut.]]
The giant pirate laughed a scary, crazy laugh.
 "Now get your magic selves down here where I
 can see you."
Sam and I started down as fast as we could.
"Thanks, Sam," I said.
"And you best have some stronger magic than
that," he yelled, "or you'll be disappearing, too.
 Har, har, har."
"Thanks a whole lot, Sam."
At ground level, the guy looked even bigger,
meaner, and uglier than from above. He did have
some smoking rope hanging in his hair. He did
have pigtails in his beard. And he did have crazy 
looking red eyes. The pirate slung his pistols and
 looked the three of us over with those eyes. He 
lifted Fred's hat from the sand on the tip of his
cutlass and jabbed it at him.
"So you three pips are magicians from another
 time, are ye?"
He stared at Fred in his baseball uniform. Thin
 wisps of smoke curled up around his three,
cornered hat. "And does everyone dress this
 funny in your time?"
Fred pulled on his hat and muttered, "Look
 who's talking."]]
"What was that, lad?"
"Oh, I said ... enough talking."
"Right you are," said the pirate, towering over
us. "So let's see some magic. Otherwise I might
be thinking you were just spying on me and looking
to steal a bit of me buried treasure." He
smiled his nasty smile again. "And if I thought
that, I'd have to kill you right now."
Fred gulped. "Uh .... Eenie, meenie, mynie,
mo. Catch a pirate by the toe. If he hollers, let
him go. Eenie, meenie, mynie, mo!" Fred pointed
to Sam. "Sam will now show you his powerful
magic!"
The pirate wasn't smiling anymore.
Sam stepped forward on wobbly legs.
"Uh ... hi, there, uh ... Mr. Blackbeard,"
said Sam.
The pirate's dark face went suddenly white.
"How do you know my name?"
"I read it," Sam said.
"Where's your crystal ball?"
"Oh, I don't need one. I even know your real
name."
"Do you now?" Blackbeard looked around,
then bent forward. "And what might it be?"]]
"Edward Teach."
Blackbeard staggered back a step and looked
over his shoulder. "The Devil you say. You lads
 are magic."
My uncle Joe always says to work the crowd
when you've got them believing. I saw my chance
to impress Blackbeard even more with our
"magic."
"And what's that in your boot?" I said.
,,, The big pirate looked down and jumped.
' "What? What?"
I reached around his
boot and held up
a quarter.]]
Blackbeard snatched it out of my hand and
gave it a close look. "What strange doubloon is
this? That wasn't in my boot before."
Blackbeard stared at the quarter in his hand.
"You mean you lads can use your magic to
pull pieces of eight right out of the air?"
"Oh, sure," said Fred. "That's nothing for
powerful magicians like us. We could do that all
day long."
"Could you now?" Blackbeard looked us over
carefully.
We took a step back.
"I could use a few mates with your talents."
The three of us began to back away slowly.
Blackbeard slid his cutlass into his belt and put
the quarter in his pocket. "Why don't you join
me aboard my new ship?"
"Oh, we'd love to, but I have a ... a ... a big
history report due Monday," said Sam.
"I call her the Queen Anne's Revenge." Blackbeard
pulled another loaded pistol from his endless
collection and pointed it between my eyes.
"Do you think that's a nice name?"
I looked down the. barrel of the biggest pistol
I've ever seen.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: No support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Chapters

Features

Integral Setting - Historical

Simple Plot

First Person

Topic

Time

*History

Pirates

Magic

Danger

Low Frequency Words

aboard	adventures	anchor	bristled	buries
bury	castaways	craziest	crusoes	curled
cutlass	cutlasses	damnation	dickory	disappearing
disney	doubloon	drunken	eenie	einstein
executed	goofing	gull	gulped	hades
halt	har	haunted	hellfire	hickory
hindmost	historical	hocus	hollers	horribly
impress	itched	knight	knights	laddies
level	license	liner	lowering	lugging
magician	magicians	mast	meenie	midair
monstrous	moustache	muttered	mynie	nastiest
nowhere	numb	otherwise	ourselves	paces
pistol	pistols	pockets	pocus	prisoners
purpose	ragged	rascals	refused	reload
revenge	robinson	selves	seventy	sherlock
shipwrecked	shower	slung	snatched	soul
squinted	staggered	stiffs	strands	swear
sweat	swig	swirl	swirled	tot
towering	transported	travelled	truly	uglier
ugliest	unloaded	walt	warn	warper
weakly	whirled	wisps	wobbly	worth
wrinkled	yer