Author Language English Publisher Simon & Schuster | Country United States Genre Children's literature Publication date June 23, 2009 | |
Extra Credit is a 2009 children's novel written by Andrew Clements. The work was first published on June 23, 2009 through Simon & Schuster and follows a young schoolgirl who is given the option of receiving extra credit by writing to an overseas pen pal in a small Afghanistan village. The book won a Christopher Award for Books for Young People in 2010.
Contents
Plot
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.
Reception
The book has received multiple reviews. Two critics for the Horn Book Guide reviewed Extra Credit, with one writing that "Although the ending is a little too neat, it’s the kind of ending kids like, and Clements’s timely story should receive high marks from middle-grade and early-middle-school readers." Publishers Weekly praised the work, as they liked that Clements discussed different cultures in a way that could be understood and appreciated by younger readers.