by Andrew Clements
Abby Carson gets a note sent home that she is in serious danger of failing 6th grade. The only way she can save herself is to get high scores for the rest of the year, do all her homework, and do an extra credit project. The project she chooses is to find a pen pal from another culture and create a bulletin board in her classroom from what she learns about their culture. She chooses Afghanistan because she hears about it on the news and knows that they have mountains there, unlike her home in Illinois
Abby Carson gets a note sent home that she is in serious danger of failing 6th grade. The only way she can save herself is to get high scores for the rest of the year, do all her homework, and do an extra credit project. The project she chooses is to find a pen pal from another culture and create a bulletin board in her classroom from what she learns about their culture. She chooses Afghanistan because she hears about it on the news and knows that they have mountains there, unlike her home in Illinois
When the village elders in Afghanistan get the request for a pen pal they know the only person fluent enough to write back would be Sadeed Bayat. Unfortunately it is unacceptable for a boy to correspond with a girl in this way, so Sadeed's sister is given the chance to write Abby, with Sadeed's help. Abby and Sadeed are both shocked at the thoughts and culture of the other, and changed in ways they did not expect to be.
Audience
I'd say 4-7 of either gender.
What I Love About This Book
I just found the whole story very sweet. It shows problems in both societies, but it shows how positive changes happen. I also love Clement's theme of teacher smart enough to manipulate students into growth situations
The end is not entirely satisfying. It left me dreaming about the future for those two children. The story is not graphic, but there is prejudice and violence.
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