Extra Credit

Extra Credit is a 2009 young adult novel by American author Andrew Clements. This book follows two sixth-grade students from different countries and cultures whose lives intersect through a pen pal exchange. Abby Carson, an athletic girl from Illinois, needs to complete an extra credit project to ensure she passes the sixth grade. She begins to exchange letters with Sadeed Bayat, an academic overachiever from Bahar-Lan, Afghanistan. As the two share personal memories, pictures, and poems, they forge a unique bond across the divisions of geography, culture, and gender, before circumstances halt their contact. The book won the Christopher Award for Books for Young People in 2010.

This guide refers to the 2012 Kindle edition. Citations are to page numbers in this edition.

Plot Summary

Sadeed Bayat, a sixth-grade boy from Afghanistan, overhears his teacher and the village elders decide that he should help his little sister, Amira, reply to a pen pal letter from an American girl. Sadeed is disappointed that, rather than being rewarded for his academic achievements, he is being saddled with another responsibility.

Abby Carson is a sixth grader from Linsdale, Illinois, who loves climbing and outdoor activities, but hates academics. Abby learns that she is in danger of failing the sixth grade unless she quickly improves all her scores and completes an extra credit project. She selects a pen pal exchange and chooses to write to the village of Bahar-Lan, Afghanistan, because it is a mountainous region.

Sadeed resentfully helps his younger sister Amira read Abby’s first letter and write her own reply. Sadeed secretly decides to improve his sister’s work with his own additions. Abby excitedly opens Amira and Sadeed’s reply, thinking that Amira is the author, and is impressed with Amira’s detailed answers and beautiful English. She immediately writes another letter, this one with much more thought and care. Sadeed feels jealous when Amira gets to read Abby’s letter to the class and takes credit for being the author of his letter. He is now much more interested in Abby’s life and decides to write his own letter to Abby and send it alongside Amira’s. Abby is intrigued to receive two replies to her letter, a basic, polite letter from Amira and a more personal and confessional message from Sadeed. She decides to post the letter from Amira on her project board for her class to see, but replies to Sadeed secretly by answering his questions in her letter to Amira.

Sadeed is excited to receive Abby’s reply, but on the way home from school he is confronted by a strange man who is offended by his correspondence with Americans and rips up the letter. Sadeed’s teacher and village elders decide that they should reply to Abby one more time, to explain that they must stop the pen pal exchange for the children’s safety. Sadeed and Amira tape up Abby’s torn letter and read it together. Meanwhile, in Illinois, Abby notices that the teacher has taken the flag of Afghanistan off of her project board. She is disappointed to learn that another student complained about it because of its Islamic symbols and phrases.

Abby receives Amira’s letter which explains that they must stop their pen pal exchange due to hostility in the village. Abby is sad to stop and wishes that Sadeed would write his own letter to her. Nevertheless, she presents her project to the class and explains that she has learned about some of the challenges of living in Afghanistan, including coping with the mountainous climate and the ongoing war there.

At the book’s end, Abby enjoys her last day of the year, relieved that she will pass sixth grade. She is surprised when a teacher delivers a letter from Sadeed. In his letter, Sadeed reveals that he is beginning to mountain climb like Abby does, and that he respects her and considers her a friend. Abby is sad that this is their final correspondence but appreciates that Sadeed wrote to her one last time. On her way home, she sees her hometown through Sadeed’s eyes for the first time, realizing its beauty.