Chris - I'm now a grad student at JFKU in museum studies, and an evaluator, but in my former life, I used to teach elementary school. I absolutely agree with Deb and her methods, but will also point you to a tool you can use to get samples of various types of writing at various grade levels. Note that it only breaks down to small grade ranges (i.e. grade 3-5). This is at least partly because this is not a hard-and-fast science, and has lots and lots of wiggle-room inherent in it. http://www.cde.ca.gov/literaturelist/litsearch.asp This is a reference list developed by the California Department of Education and is fairly current. I especially like that you can get examples of books in various categories (including narrative non-fiction, non-fiction, and fiction) since our label-writing is more like what you might find in non-fiction or narrative non-fiction rather than a novel. Please do test your copy on real children in your area anyway - it's the only way you'll really know if the kids liable to come to your exhibit are likely to be able to read your labels. In fact, here's a vote to testing ALL labels on random people, to at least find out what terms common to your field are not generally known to the public in your area. :-) -Mary Kidwell _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).