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Amanda's Special Salad

Amanda's Special Salad
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 4
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.14

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    baller, dressing, flesh, longed, plastic-wrapped, rind, sinclair, world-famous, core, cantaloupe, perfectly, tablespoon, refrigerator, recipe, rough, nearly
     content words:    Granny Smith, Paradise Salad

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Other Languages
     Spanish: La Ensalada Especial de Amanda

Amanda's Special Salad
By Brenda B. Covert 		  
1     Amanda had a dream. She would grow up to be a famous chef. She would have a closet full of those white hats and fancy aprons. People would line up and down the street for a taste of her world-famous apple pie. Her big brother would beg her to bake his favorite cake.
 
2     Now, if she could only convince her mother to let her cook, she'd be on her way! To become a chef, one needs to practice preparing food. Amanda's mother allowed her to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and toast. Amanda longed to do so much more. Nobody would line up for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
 
3     When Mrs. Sinclair came home from work Friday evening, she had a large bag of green apples. She had half a cantaloupe wrapped in plastic. Amanda saw a big, plastic-wrapped slice of watermelon, too.
 
4     "What are you going to do with all this fruit?" Amanda asked, running her fingers over the cantaloupe's rough rind as her mother spread all the fruit on the counter.
 
5     "We're going to have some fun!" her mother said. She reached into the drawer and pulled out her melon ball cutter and her apple slicer.
 
6     "We're not going to eat green apples, are we?" Amanda asked, making a face. "I thought green apples were sour."
 
7     "Oh, these are Granny Smith apples," Mrs. Sinclair assured Amanda. "These are ripe, and they taste great! Trust me. You'll see!"
 
8     Mrs. Sinclair showed her daughter how to use the apple slicer. It was metal, round, and shaped like a wagon wheel. It had a hole in the center that the core would slide through. Putting the apple on a plate, Amanda placed the apple slicer on top with the stem poking through the center hole. By being pressed down, the slicer cut through the apple. When she finished, Amanda had eight apple slices and a core that she could throw in the trash can. She sliced up two of the apples.

Paragraphs 9 to 18:
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