Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Paper Dogies



Paper Dogies
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grade 9
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.03

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    bicycle-horse, bonanza, brrrring, copious, dogie, early-morning, facetious, felicitous, help-if, overt, paperboy, pullover, steely-eyed, strawberry-banana, turnkey, tumbleweed
     content words:    Cathy Delaney, Boy Scout, Could Cathy


Print Paper Dogies
     Print Paper Dogies  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)


Quickly Print - PDF format
     Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)

     Quickly Print: PDF (full page)


Quickly Print - HTML format
     Quickly Print: HTML


Proofreading Activity
     Print a proofreading activity


Feedback on Paper Dogies
     Leave your feedback on Paper Dogies  (use this link if you found an error in the story)



Paper Dogies
By Colleen Messina
  

1     "Cathy Delaney, you are fifteen and old enough to know better than to tease your brother!" Cathy's father said sternly. "Do you realize how hard Scott works to do his paper route each day? He has a dilemma because he must find a replacement for the week he is away at Boy Scout camp. None of his friends can do it because they are going to camp, too." His steely-eyed look meant Cathy needed to learn a lesson. "I think I have a solution. You would like to earn some extra money. Wouldn't you?"
 
2     Cathy knew that Dad wasn't really asking her to take over Scott's paper route. "Sure, Dad," Cathy said, sealing her fate of rising at 4:30 a.m. for an entire week. At least she would earn some money to buy some new clothes. She would normally shun this job, but her dad's "request" made that impossible. So instead, she pasted a heroic smile on her face as she tried to come to terms with the awful job she had agreed to do.
 
3     Cathy usually made a sincere effort to be a good sister, but she did tease her little brother about his paper route. Scott was eleven and took overt pride in his route. Mr. Delaney, who used to be a paperboy himself, thought that even doing the job for a week would greatly improve Cathy's attitude. He knew that Cathy normally rose at the last possible minute, showered, gulped down a quick breakfast and smeared on her raspberry lip gloss as she ran to the school bus at 7:40. Could Cathy get up at dawn?
 
4     Although 4:30 a.m. was very early, Cathy felt confident she could handle the paper route. She already was a conscientious babysitter, so how hard could a paper route be? Babysitting required that Cathy develop a serious demeanor as well as an aptitude for doing many things at once. It gave her physical skills (bouncing a baby while talking on the phone), social skills (talking on the phone while changing a diaper), and investigative skills (locating essential nourishment like pizza and ice cream while talking on the phone).
 
5     Cathy worked hard and managed to deliver papers for six days without a single impairment. On Saturday, the last day, Cathy's warm fog of delicious, leftover dreams was rudely interrupted by the shrill b-r-r-r-ring of the alarm clock. She groaned and angrily threw the alarm clock across the room. She was tired of rising at this ridiculous hour! "I just have to make it through one more day!" she grumbled to herself.
 
6     Cathy dragged herself out of bed, stumbled to her cherry dresser, and hit her leg on the corner of the bed. She yanked out a flannel pullover and caught her wavy hair in the zipper in front. She tried to untangle her hair and promptly tripped over her Siamese cat, Jasmine, who let out a terrific yowl as Cathy fell on top of her. Jasmine and Cathy howled together in pain for a moment, and then Cathy noticed the copious rain pouring down the windowpane. Things were looking worse every second. Cathy had never thought of the paper route as an aquatic event...but it would be today.
 
7     Cathy stumbled downstairs, thinking that a cup of coffee would probably help â€" it was too bad that she didn't drink coffee. A bonanza of newspapers was piled high on the front porch, waiting for her out of the rain. Cathy had to put each newspaper into a plastic bag while the unremitting rain fell in torrents. Cathy looked and felt ragged, and she had not delivered a single paper yet. The week of early rising was catching up to her, and today her mood matched the cantankerous weather.
 
8     Jagged streaks of white lightning rippled across the inky sky as Cathy loaded up her bike, which creaked and groaned like an overburdened hunchback in a sci-fi flick. She needed to lubricate the bike chain but didn't have time now. Cathy felt queasy with concern as lightning illuminated the street. Jasmine, who had followed Cathy outside, howled in off-key notes of despair with every boom of thunder.

Paragraphs 9 to 16:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable



Weekly Reading Books

          Create Weekly Reading Books

Prepare for an entire week at once!


More Lessons
             High School Reading Comprehensions and High School Reading Lessons


More Activities, Lesson Plans, and Worksheets


Back to School
Graphic Organizers
Alphabet Worksheets
Sight Words
Math Worksheets
Mazes
50 States
Education
Teaching

Monthly Themes
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Fractions
Place Value
Time and Calendar
Money
Earth Day
Solar System
Analogies
Nouns
Following Directions
Listening
Capitalization
Cursive Writing
Patterns and Sequencing
Dinosaurs
All About Me

Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade
Sixth Grade

Multiplication
Division
Main Idea
Cause and Effect
Measurement
Decimals
Rounding
Order of Operations
Verbs
Community Helpers
Adjectives
Plants
Grammar
Addition and Subtraction
Contractions
Bulletin Board Ideas
Word Searches
Crossword Puzzles
Printable Puzzles

Reading Comprehension
Reading Skills
English Language Arts





Copyright © 2017 edHelper