Extra Credit

Clements knocks it out of the park again. This story is so timely between a boy in a small village in Afghanistan and a girl in mid-western America. Both are in 6th grade and learn about each other through letters. The attitude towards Americans and girls for many of the small villages in Afghanistan is explained in words students can understand. The idea of how important schooling is hits hard and hits home for Abby, the American girl, when she it told she may be held back in 6th grade because she has chosen to not do assignments for school or put in the time studying to pass exams for the last couple of school years. Now her grades are too bad to pass to 7th grade. To pass she must complete all assignments with at least a B for the second half of the school year and do an extra credit assignment - write to a pen pal in another country. Little does she know just how much these two things are going to change how she looks at school and life. This book keeps even an adult interested. A real must read.

I was expecting a cheesy book, but boy was I wrong. Unlike some of Clements' other books, there's no splashy, children-lead rebellions. Instead a boy from Afghanistan secretly strays from tradition as he writes letters to a girl in America. The book takes us inside their lives, and we feel their joys and sorrows. A small, quiet point in the book is that excluding religious references from education results in an inferior education. I don't know if the author has been to Afghanistan, but he seemed to know the culture intimately. I listened to the audio book, and Gabra Zackman did an excellent narration.

Abby Carson, a likeable Illinois 6th grader, is in danger of being held back unless she brings her grades up and completes a...you guessed it....EXTRA CREDIT project. It involves exchanging letters with Amira Bayat and (less directly) her brother, Sadeed, who live in Afghanistan. There is a great deal of cultural information worked into the story, and readers who struggle may lose interest. (For those readers, Clement's NO TALKING might be a better choice for pleasure reading.) The illustrations and "handwritten" letters are well done and wisely included. Those who already enjoy reading will find this another pleasurable Clements adventure, and those who don't take to reading so easily will still find a good story(while learning about another culture in the process.)This would be a strong choice for a social studies class to partner with a non-fiction book such as Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea: Young Readers Edition.

Andrew Clements' novels are always a success in my opinion. Written for a middle grade audience, they are entertaining, inspirational, and educational, and EXTRA CREDIT is no exception. Just look closely at the cover and you will probably guess EXTRA CREDIT is a pen pal story, but it is not just any pen pal situation. Abby finds herself reluctantly writing a pen pal letter for extra credit. She is in danger of being held back in sixth grade again next year. Desperate to go on to junior high with her friends, she has promised to do all her homework and earn B's on all future tests this year so that she can leave the sixth grade behind. That is not quite enough for her language arts teacher. An extra credit project will also be required. That's where the letter writing comes in. Halfway around the globe from Illinois is Sadeed living in Afghanistan. His teacher has just asked him to assist his sister in writing a pen pal letter to a girl from America. That girl is Abby. What follows is the development of an unusual friendship and a learning experience like no other. Both young people are introduced to a culture completely different from their own, and the reactions that arise leave them both confused about the intolerant beliefs that surround them. The possibilities for EXTRA CREDIT are endless. It could be used as a discussion starter in classrooms involving current events, different cultures, letter writing, and so much more. Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

Andrew Clements has a very unique writing style and has quickly become one of my favorite children's authors. Clements delves deeply into showing, step-by-step, cause and effect in his stories' events and rationalizing among his characters. He is also apt to give pages and pages of back story to explain something happening in his books. He uses these techniques very effectively to give the reader a true understanding of what is happening on different levels in his stories. In Clements's latest book, EXTRA CREDIT, Abby Carson is coasting in school - the only class she really puts her heart into is gym class, where she gives her all on a climbing wall she loves trying to scale. It's not that the classroom work is too difficult, but Abby just doesn't LIKE doing the work. Things have gone downhill from year to year, and now Abby learns that she is about to fail sixth grade! Abby quickly looks for a way to avoid repeating sixth grade, and is told she MIGHT be able to pass if she does a few things - hands in every assignment, gets a B or better on every quiz and test, and does an extra credit project, corresponding with a pen pal in another country. From a short list of countries her teacher offers her, Abby chooses Afghanistan, because of its mountains and her love of climbing. In a village near the Afghan capital of Kabul, teacher Mahmood has chosen his best student, Sadeed Bayat, to represent his country and correspond with Abby for her project. However, the village council has other ideas - they cling to the old traditions and believe it improper for a boy to be exchanging letters with a girl. Instead, Sadeed's little sister Amira will write the letters with Sadeed checking them over for quality. Sadeed quickly grows impatient with Abby's attempts to compose a letter to Abby in English and offers to let her dictate in Dari (their language), and he will translate and write the letter in English, having her sign it when he is finished. When the first letter is "ready to go," Sadeed realizes that Amira has left questions unanswered and written a rather superficial letter. Sadeed rewrites the letter, adding his own thoughts to it. When he hands his teacher both letters, saying he knows that Amira's original should be the one to be sent, he does not see that his teacher sends Sadeed's letter instead. What was, to Abby, just an unwanted, required extra credit assignment, quickly begins to grab her interest as she reads what life in Afghanistan is like - girls discouraged from attending school, rockets once bombing their village, and only one borrowed book in Amira's home. With Amira's second letter to Abby, Sadeed sends a separate one from himself, telling the truth of how he embellished Amira's first letter, and pouring his thoughts onto the page. Through the letters and a developing friendship, Sadeed and Abby learn not only about each other's countries and lives, but come to better understand and appreciate their own lives. Eventual