book: Extra Credit by Andrew Clements
Jul. 5th, 2010 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynWhen I finished reading the children's book Extra Credit by Andrew Clements, I was struck by one singular feeling. "Where is the rest of it?"
After a few days of thinking about it, I realized that all the plot points were resolved and the foreshadowing is merely meant to be indicative that this is about on-going situations so similar to the real world that the characters are not frozen in time.
In several ways, it reads like one of those ham-handed Aesop rip-offs where the reader is cudgeled with the author's version of morality.
But those issues aside, it was a pleasant and well-crafted book with enough characterization to make it intriguing for further literary exploration. I wanted to read more books with people from Afghanistan. I wanted to read more books with people who do rock climbing. So the book succeeds at making us want to know the people contained within its pages.
To summarize, because most of you don't read children's books, a girl is in danger of being held back because she's spoiled and unfocused. She only likes being outside and rock climbing. There is some serious entitlement going on there, but it's so much a part of the character and culture that it feels like "just the way things are supposed to be". So she speaks to her teachers and they make an agreement that in addition to doing all her regular work for the rest of the year, she must complete an extra credit project chosen at random. So she agrees to do a penpal thing, where she writes to another child, shares everything on a bulletin board, and does an oral report.
The child on the other end is wrapped up in cultural drama. The school's best English speaker (it's a foreign language for all of them) is a boy, but culturally there it's inappropriate for males and females to have that level of contact. So the boy's younger sister gets credit for this. The town council met to decide this and there were overtones of traditionalism when one of the elders complained that girls were being allowed in school at all. The way the project was presented, "a response is required so they don't think we are impolite" shocked me. From my own perspective, people who don't think girls are worthy of education are barbarians hardly concerned with manners.
It's interesting to see her really grasp why effort matters, even though that point was not really honed in the book. Her first letter is slovenly written and egocentric. The letter she gets back has hand drawings, was laboriously translated and copied out by someone her own age. It really snaps into place for the girl, this is someone speaks several languages. I'm not sure if she finally gets why we have education but it certainly seems like she sees that there is more to know.
The next letter had the boy admitting to what was going on with his sister and the credit. The girl didn't seem to really understand how big of a deal the separate letter was, but she actually reaches inside herself and finds room for someone else there. That was the letter where the foreign boy actually becomes her friend.
Her response though, is discovered by rebels outside the village who accost the boy and he must run away lest he be assaulted further. The town council meets again and it is decreed that no more letters will be sent. His sister writes a stilted letter saying that the interchange is at an end.
So the girl finishes the school year and everything seems fine. She gets another letter later, sent by the boy. It talks about how she inspired him and his uncle took him rock climbing. It talks about the violence that ensued because their village sent for help dealing with the rebels that he had discovered through their reaction to the girl's letter. Her whole perspective shifts. It's kind of surprising how profound a reaction she has.
The whole thing reads like the prologue to a giant novel. I know that's my own adult perspective. But I really did expect there to be more. It shouldn't have stopped there.
After a few days of thinking about it, I realized that all the plot points were resolved and the foreshadowing is merely meant to be indicative that this is about on-going situations so similar to the real world that the characters are not frozen in time.
In several ways, it reads like one of those ham-handed Aesop rip-offs where the reader is cudgeled with the author's version of morality.
But those issues aside, it was a pleasant and well-crafted book with enough characterization to make it intriguing for further literary exploration. I wanted to read more books with people from Afghanistan. I wanted to read more books with people who do rock climbing. So the book succeeds at making us want to know the people contained within its pages.
To summarize, because most of you don't read children's books, a girl is in danger of being held back because she's spoiled and unfocused. She only likes being outside and rock climbing. There is some serious entitlement going on there, but it's so much a part of the character and culture that it feels like "just the way things are supposed to be". So she speaks to her teachers and they make an agreement that in addition to doing all her regular work for the rest of the year, she must complete an extra credit project chosen at random. So she agrees to do a penpal thing, where she writes to another child, shares everything on a bulletin board, and does an oral report.
The child on the other end is wrapped up in cultural drama. The school's best English speaker (it's a foreign language for all of them) is a boy, but culturally there it's inappropriate for males and females to have that level of contact. So the boy's younger sister gets credit for this. The town council met to decide this and there were overtones of traditionalism when one of the elders complained that girls were being allowed in school at all. The way the project was presented, "a response is required so they don't think we are impolite" shocked me. From my own perspective, people who don't think girls are worthy of education are barbarians hardly concerned with manners.
It's interesting to see her really grasp why effort matters, even though that point was not really honed in the book. Her first letter is slovenly written and egocentric. The letter she gets back has hand drawings, was laboriously translated and copied out by someone her own age. It really snaps into place for the girl, this is someone speaks several languages. I'm not sure if she finally gets why we have education but it certainly seems like she sees that there is more to know.
The next letter had the boy admitting to what was going on with his sister and the credit. The girl didn't seem to really understand how big of a deal the separate letter was, but she actually reaches inside herself and finds room for someone else there. That was the letter where the foreign boy actually becomes her friend.
Her response though, is discovered by rebels outside the village who accost the boy and he must run away lest he be assaulted further. The town council meets again and it is decreed that no more letters will be sent. His sister writes a stilted letter saying that the interchange is at an end.
So the girl finishes the school year and everything seems fine. She gets another letter later, sent by the boy. It talks about how she inspired him and his uncle took him rock climbing. It talks about the violence that ensued because their village sent for help dealing with the rebels that he had discovered through their reaction to the girl's letter. Her whole perspective shifts. It's kind of surprising how profound a reaction she has.
The whole thing reads like the prologue to a giant novel. I know that's my own adult perspective. But I really did expect there to be more. It shouldn't have stopped there.
