katyjean81's reviews
1318 reviews

While it may seem to some to be a little cliche, this book is an excellent way to help children, young adults and adults alike envision the USA in its entirety. I believe it can serve as an excellent discussion starter for a statistics course, almost any social studies class dealing with population or community, or with any group which wants to take a metaphoric look at the make up of the USA.

I try not to give five stars regularly but this book deserved it for the extensive research explanation. Of course, the book was well illustrated, interesting and an important look at two marginalized groups (is that even sufficient to say that Jews were marginalized during WWII?) in our history. I think this book provides an essential alternative view of World War II, in paris as well as globally. This book would be an excellent compliment to discussions on Jewish-Muslim relations historically, study of WWII, or Islamic Studies.

I liked this book. Kilodavis did a nice job of dealing with a subject which many find difficult. Children who are transgender (although in fairness, she does not use the word transgender) is something many people haven't given a moment of thought. This book deals with issues of gender identity gently and with sensitivity from the point of view of both the child and the parent. It is a little heavy handed in its delivery, but overall its a great text.

As a graduate student aspiring to be a middle/high school librarian, I sometimes find myself a little frustrated in what I often see as the "no-man's land" of middle grades literature. I am pleased when I come across middle grades literature which actively confront complex issues, as does Extra Credit, with two main characters from starkly different backgrounds corresponding through as pen pals.

Abby Carson is sixth grade girl growing up in Illinois, bored with school but clearly intelligent and interested in learning, just not in learning what school deems as important. She loves spending time outdoors, exploring nature, and rock climbing. Sadeed Bayat is an eleven year old boy living in a village in the hills of Kabul, Afghanistan. He is the star pupil in his village school, and he loves to read, particularly the English language books from his teacher's small collection.

At first glance, this book is an excellent cultural introduction to the lives of pre-teens in Afghanistan. The war is recognized but his village is portrayed as being mostly past the violence at this time. His sister Amira is "allowed" to go to school and is thankful for the opportunity. The author seamlessly slides in cultural education for readers about the language, food, power structures and day to day life of modern Afghanis. I learned a great deal reading this book, and as many reviews and blog posts state, this book would be an ideal starting point for a variety of units. It could easily be read by advanced elementary school students as well as middle schoolers. The illustrations which accompany this book are not complicated but serve as a pleasant visual supplement to the cultural contrasts presented as the narrative switches from Afghanistan to Illinois.

So, now that the good stuff has been addressed (of which there is a great deal), here's what bothers me: as part of my master's project at UNC, I am identifying texts for a course I am designing on multicultural literature and resources. Participants in this course will be asked to look at children's & YA lit with a critical eye. Soem refer to it as critical literacy, others use the term critical race theory. However you cut it, it is about analyzing who has the power in the novel, why they have that power, and what it says about both the story and society as a whole. There are two specific issues I have with this book. One, I finished it with the distinct feeling that Abby's lifestyle was being portrayed as the "right" one. What I am having a difficult time teasing out is, do I feel this way because the book truly portrays the Afghani lifestyle as a negative one to be escaped or undermined (as Sadeed and his teacher teacher clearly do) or because I personally hold issue with any culture which disempowers women and restricts young men such as Sadeed from freely expressing himself?

The second issue I hold with this book is in the final chapters, where Sadeed has a conflict with a man who may or may not be a Talibani fighter. The man asks what he is doing, one thing leads to another, and he tears up Sadeed's letter, threatens him and sends him home. In a book where the rest of the characters seem to be complex and well-developed, even the flat characters, this character just seemed to serve more of a plot twist and less of a person. The rebel forces within Afghanistan are people as well and to reduce them to the evil character in the novel doesn't sit well with me as a reader. Of course, in what I would assume is an effort to be fair and balanced, Clements recognizes forces against free expression in the United States by having the principal force the removal of the Afghani flag from Abby's classroom display as the result of a complaining parent. Once again, this struck as more of a literary tactic, which is not to say that it's unrealistic, just that it seemed to happen with a little less development than I would have liked. Which cycles me back to one of my first comments in this review: Middle Grades literature is a difficult animal. Had Clements gone into more detail and developed these two instances with more complexity, this book may no longer have been appropriate for late elementary/middle school readers because of length.

Overall, I am pleased with this book. I think Mr. Clements took on an interesting and highly relevant topic for today's students, and I am glad he did so. I would have no objections to sharing this book with students, but I think they would benefit from mediating the text from a critical stance and discussing the choices the author made about characters and plot.

What do others feel about this novel?