Text Leveling System

I am Jim Henson

RDQ:	781	Max Word/Sent	33	Total Words	2084		Diff Words	675
Lex	700	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	1513	72.6%	Hi freq	293	43.4%
AR	3.3	Long Sentences	6.5	Low Freq occurs	119	5.7%	Low freq	87	12.9%

I like the book fine so far.
It hasn't started yet.
That's what I like about it!]]
I am Jim Henson.]]
Oh, good. You're here. What's the fun of a story if you don't have anyone to share it with?
Growing up in Mississippi, I used to love to watch birds. I even made my own book, where I'd list each bird I saw and add my own drawings. That bird up there is my favorite the Blackbird. Blackbirds have fun personalities, and I also love their other name! The grackle. Don't you just love funny names like that? My whole life, I've loved kooky words.]]
Wanna know what else I loved? Laughing. As a kid, this was one of my favorite family jokes. My mom used to play it on my brother and me. Say when. Gee, that's enough. Mom, that's enough. Mom! You didn't say when.]]
At eight years, old I'd come here: to the movie theater. Every Saturday, this was my favorite place.]]
For 15 cents I could get a bag of popcorn and spend the whole day watching cartoons, newsreels, action movies, and comedies. My favorites were the ones with wild clothing and far off locations, like the Old West or foreign countries.]]
The rest of the week, my friends and I would recreate what we saw in the movies, using homemade props and costumes. Bed sheet as turban. Look! The great snake charmer! Garden hose as snake. Look! A star tattoo! Cork, cut like a star, then charred black. Star tattoo that bad guy had in the movie. With a little imagination, we started pretending. There was no limit to what we could create.]]
My grandparents played a big role in my life. I got my middle name Maury from my grandfather, who loved to laugh too. But he never laughed at anyone, never made fun of people.
As for my grandmother, she was my best audience. When she came over to visit, we'd use paint, glue, and crayons to make the most amazing art projects.
She was the one who encouraged me to draw things that made me happy: monsters with giant mouse and birds with big eyes. I adore it, Jimmy. Now tell me a story about each creature.]]
Those days with my grandmother changed my life. She encouraged me to tell stories. She supported my love of reading. She was amazing with a needle and thread. She could sew anything. What is it? It's a coat made out of an army blanket. Like it? Gee, I really do. But the most important thing she taught me was that with my imagination, I could do anything. I could be anything, including .]]
A performer. One night, during a skit in cub scouts, I had one of my friends stand in front of everyone with his hands behind his back then I put my own hands in and. What's so funny? I'm being serious here! I can still hear the crowd laughing.]]
 I always loved a good performance. Growing up, I listen to shows on the radio like the green Hornet, the shadow, and one of my favorite comedians, a ventriloquist named Edgar Bergen.
Even though Edgar Bergen did the voices, I never thought Charlie McCarthy or his other characters were puppets. They were human to me.]]
His work was magic. Magic in the real sense! It seemed impossible. That's what magic is. It creates wonder. It creates dreams that inspire. I'd seen their pictures in newspapers. But here, with each show an ordinary object came to life.
Once Upon a time, long ago. Funny. Nothing ever happens nowadays. Something happened when Edgar spoke through Charlie. The puppeteer wasn't just sharing jokes. He was sharing the best part of himself. And people were listening.]]
When I was 13, a new technology changed my life. At a friend's house, I saw an invention called television! You have a television! We just got it. Isn't it cool? Can we get a TV? Can we get a TV? Can we get a TV? Can you please stop? Sure. Now can we get a TV? I wouldn't give up. Soon, my parents gave in.]]
On TV I found comedians like Sid Caesar, Milton Burrell, and Jack Benny. One of my favorites was Ernie kovacs, who tilted the set and camera so everything slid sideways. I specially love variety shows, which had big casts that would sing, dance, and do comedy. And there was kukla Fran, and Ollie, a show where puppets made jokes and sang with a human costar.
The way they talked to each other it was like those puppets were alive. Right away, I knew one thing: I wanted to work in television.]]
At 16 years old, i went looking for a job at the local TV stations. Sorry kid. Sorry kid. Sorry kid. There has to be another place that'll hire me. They all said no. But like the time I begged my dad for a TV, I never gave up.]]
Soon after, a local station announced it was looking for a puppeteer. I'd never used a puppet before, but my whole life, I loved creating. This was a job I wanted. So how'd I get it? The same way you get any dream: hard work. I went to my high school library, took out books on puppetry, built a few puppets, and went back to the station. Now I am a puppeteer. Will you hire me? They gave me a chance. That was all I needed.]]
What's my first show at success? No. It was cancelled. But did I give up? Not a chance. My partner and I continued creating continued working hard and eventually we got our own five minutes before The Tonight Show. Along the way, we came up with a name for our characters. We called them Muppets, playing around with the word puppet. But really, it was just a fun word. Like grackle. By the way, this is Jane. She worked on the shows with me. We're going to get married one day. Wait. We get married? Don't ruin the ending.]]
Our show was called Sam and friends. We needed a new puppet, and the answer was right in plain sight. I was 18 years old and found my mother's old wool coat. I cut it apart and sewed a new body. My grandmother taught me that one. I gave it a pointed face I glued on the halves of a ping pong ball for eyes. And then I became the one who performed his voice. Yes, he was turquoise back then. He wasn't even a frog. But he did have a name. Kermit.]]
With each show, I kept inventing new characters, dreaming up new ways to make people laugh. On TV, unlike the puppet stage, there are no walls. So we could film our Muppets from far away. Or bring them really close for an easy laugh.]]
And while old fashioned puppets had frozen expressions, our muppet spaces could move. We could do faces that were funny angry or even sad. To make our Muppets seem even more real, we cross their eyes slightly. This gave them focus period now they started to come alive.]]
But do you want to know my real secret? Practice. We would practice in a mirror, over and over, until it was just right. Let's do it again, fellas. This is Jerry Juhl who writes for The Muppets, Don sahlin who helps build The Muppets, and frank oz who will be the voice and performer of Grover and even Yoda. Who's Yoda? Don't ruin the ending. We did commercials, and performed on other shows. But like so much of life, it was all just training for our next adventure.]]
Two TV producers named Joan Ganz Cooney and Jon stone were about to give me the opportunity of a lifetime. We want to create a show that will change the lives of children. Especially those whose families don't have a lot of opportunities. We want a show that can help them learn to read and count. It can be funny, right? They even had a name for it.]]
Sesame Street since kids loved The Muppets, we built Muppets who could interact directly with the kids. We began with a big yellow bird who was a child himself. That's me! I'm big bird!]]
On November 10th 1969 the first episode aired. It was a smash hit. Then we added a grouchy green monster named OSC they know who I am!]]
Every episode, Sesame Street taught the ABC's. C is for cookie! And 1-2 3 s. That's four! Four beautiful ah bats! It was one of the first shows to have kids of different races playing and learning together. It taught kids how to share, how to take turns, and how to get along. Certainly, with its zany creatures, it made us laugh.]]
But at its best, the songwriters like Joe raposo, Sesame Street made us think especially about what kind of people we wanted to be. Green is the color of spring and green can be cool and friendly like and green can be big like an ocean or important like a mountain or tall like a tree. Through song, the whole world heard that green and all of us can be anything. isn't it beautiful to see the world like that? In fact, kermit's humor never came from making fun of other people. It came from bringing us together. By focusing on the good in everyone, my sense of wonder took over and my dream of entertaining others came true.]]
 The Muppets and I went on new adventures. And got to bring along some favorite old friends. It's the muppet show, and our very special guest star Mr. Edgar Bergen! Every week on the muppet show, frogs, pigs, bears, and creatures of all kind reminded the world that despite all the chaos .]]
good grief, the comedians a bear. Thank you, thank you, and thank you! Oh boy what a crowd! I don't approve of belly dancers. Why can't they dance on the floor like everyone else? Sorry about that, folks. As I was saying. On the muppet show and on Sesame Street, I wanted our audience to know that despite all of the chaos, and despite our differences, there is nothing more fun than being together. From there, I never stopped creating and dreaming. In fact, the more we performed.]]
The more fun we had, and the more my dreams grew, bringing millions of people together. What can possibly be more magical than that?]]
Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending! We've done just what we set out to do, thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and you.]]
In my life, I loved to create. But the secret behind my best creation wasn't a strong hand, or a catchy song, or even a funny voice. It was a simple idea: there's good in all of us. Sure, we're all different. Some of us have beards, and no hair, or blue fur, or green flippers. But goodness lives within each of us.]]
That's an idea that should never get old. Believe in the good of the world. Create something new. Share what you love. And find others who believe in those favorite things you dream about. Together.]]
We can make magic. Today Sesame Street is watched by millions of kids in more than 150 countries worldwide, from Brooklyn to Bangladesh. At its peak, the muppet show was watched by over 235 million people per week. Did you know he even started the Jim Henson foundation to promote and develop the art of puppetry. Not to ruin the ending, but is this the ending?]]
I think that's the secret. As long as there are new dreamers, new people who love to entertain and pretend, this is a story that never ends. Guess what? I want to create cool things too. Just like you. Gee, thank you so much. Don't let anything stop you.]]
It starts when we're kids. That's when we learn some of the best things in life. Laughing. Sharing. Imagining. Dreaming. Creating. Never stop doing them. And never stop being kind. There's nothing wrong with being a do gooder.]]
I am Jim Henson, and I will keep believing and keep pretending.]]
I've got a dream too, but it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. That's the kind of dream that gets better with more people you share it with Kermit the frog.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Sophisticated graphics supplementing text

Speech Bubbles

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Oral/Natural

Author's purpose: Obvious

Features

Foreign words

Topic

Puppets

Practice

Television

Comedy

Humor

*Entertainment & Fun

Performing

Low Frequency Words

adventures	aired	announced	approve	audience
burrell	chaos	comedians	comedies	comedy
commercials	cooney	despite	encouraged	entertaining
episode	eventually	expressions	fashioned	fellas
foreign	foundation	ganz	glued	grackle
grief	grover	halves	henson	humor
imagination	imagining	inspire	interact	inventing
invention	juhl	kermit	kooky	kovacs
kukla	locations	magical	maury	mccarthy
mississippi	muppet	muppets	nowadays	object
opportunities	opportunity	ordinary	osc	partner
performance	performed	performer	personalities	pong
producers	projects	promote	props	puppeteer
puppetry	raposo	recreate	sahlin	sesame
sewed	sideways	songwriters	specially	stations
technology	that'll	theater	thread	tilted
turban	turquoise	variety	ventriloquist	wanna
worldwide	yoda