Extra Credit (Junior Library Guild Selection) [Hardcover]

Andrew Clements (Author), Mark Elliott (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Junior Library Guild Selection

It isn’t that Abby Carson can’t do her schoolwork. She just doesn’t like doing it. And in February a warning letter arrives at her home. Abby will have to repeat sixth grade—unless she meets some specific conditions, including taking on an extra-credit project to find a pen pal in a distant country. Seems simple enough. But when Abby’s first letter arrives at a small school in Afghanistan, the village elders agree that any letters going back to America must be written well. In English. And the only qualified student is a boy, Sadeed Bayat. Except in this village, it is not proper for a boy to correspond with a girl. So Sadeed’s younger sister will write the letters. Except she knows hardly any English. So Sadeed must write the letters. For his sister to sign. But what about the villagers who believe that girls should not be anywhere near a school? And what about those who believe that any contact with Americans is . . . unhealthy? Not so simple. But as letters flow back and forth—between the prairies of Illinois and the mountains of central Asia, across cultural and religious divides, through the minefields of different lifestyles and traditions—a small group of children begin to speak and listen to one another. And in just a few short weeks, they make important discoveries about their communities, about their world, and most of all, about themselves.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4–7—A forced pen-pal exchange turns into an opportunity for real communication between Illinois sixth-grader Abby Carson and Sadeed Bayat, the best English-language student in his Afghan village. When Abby's first letter arrives in Bahar-Lan, 11-year-old Sadeed is asked by the elders to compose his sister Amira's reply; it isn't proper for a boy and girl to correspond with one another. But soon Sadeed can't resist telling Abby that it is he who has been writing to her. The third-person narrative alternates points of view, allowing for inclusion of intriguing details of both lives. Never a scholar, Abby prefers the woods behind her family's farm and the climbing wall in her school; in the afternoons, Sadeed works in his father's grain shop. In spite of their differences, Abby and Sadeed connect through their imaginations, and their earlier readings of Frog and Toad Are Friends. They learn, as Abby reports, that "people are simple, but the stuff going on around them can get complicated." Full-page pencil illustrations throughout add to the book's appeal. Clements offers readers an engaging and realistic school story and provides an evenhanded comparison between a Midwestern girl's lifestyle and a culture currently in the news.—Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Andrew Clements is the author of more than fifty books for children, including the New York Times bestsellers No Talking and Lunch Money and the enormously popular Frindle. He lives with his wife in western Massachusetts and has four grown children. Visit andrewclements.com. Mark Elliott is the illustrator of many books for young readers, including No Talking by Andrew Clements. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (June 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416949291
• ISBN-13: 978-1416949299
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Children's Books > Travel & Cultures > Explore the World > Middle East

More About the Author

Most of my characters are fairly normal people who are dealing with the basics of everyday life--getting along with others, finding a place in the world, discovering talents, overcoming challenges, trying to have some wholesome fun along the way, and getting into some scrapes and a little mischief now and then, too. I guess I hope my readers will be able to see bits and pieces of themselves in the stories, particularly the novels that take place in and around school. School is a rich setting because schools and education are at the heart of every community. The stories that are set in school seem to resonate with kids, teachers, parents, librarians--readers of all ages. Everyone's life has been touched by school experiences. And I also hope, of course, that kids and others will enjoy reading, enjoy the use of language, enjoy my storytelling.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bridging Two Different Cultures, June 29, 2009

By 

Dwight Blubaugh "MichiBlue" (The only Eaton Rapids on Earth, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extra Credit (Junior Library Guild Selection) (Hardcover)

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.

Eventually, some of those around both Sadeed and Abby take issue with the letter writing, and things grow increasingly complicated, even putting the safety of Sadeed and his village in jeopardy.

I also enjoyed Mark Elliott's 14 beautiful full-page pencil drawings.

AR gives this book a reading level of RL 5.3, which I would agree is accurate.

I would rate this book a 9 on a scale of 1-10.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clements delivers another middle-school winner, August 2, 2009

By 

M. Knapp "Maggie Knapp" (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extra Credit (Junior Library Guild Selection) (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, July 6, 2009

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Extra Credit (Junior Library Guild Selection) (Hardcover)

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"