Extra Credit

Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

It isn't that Abby Carson can't do her schoolwork, it's just that she doesn't like doing it. And that means she's pretty much failing sixth grade. When a warning letter is sent home, Abby realizes that her slacking off could cause her to be held back - for real. Unless she want to repeat sixth grade, she'll have to meet some specific conditions, including taking on an extra-credit project: find a pen-pal in a foreign country. Simple enough (even for a girl who hates homework.)

Abby's first letter arrives at a small school in Afghanistan, and Sadeed Bayat is chosen to be her pen pal. Well kind of. He is the best writer, but he is also a boy, and in his village it is not appropriate for a boy to correspond with a girl. So his younger sister dictates and signs the letter.Until Sadeed decides what his sister is telling Abby isn't what he'd like Abby to know.

As the letters flow back and forth between Illinois and Afghanistan, Abby and Sadeed discover that their letters are crossing more than an ocean. They are crossing a huge cultural divide and a minefield of different lifestyles and traditions. Their growing friendship is also becoming a growing problem for both communities, and some people are not happy. Suddenly things are not so simple.

A thoughtful book, that I wish would have been around when I was a kid. I think it suggests at ideas of so many cultural difference - I just wonder if many kids will take it that step further than what Abby did?

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