Andrew Clements

has won me over, for awhile now.  Extra Credit is my favorite of all of the Clements books that I have read so far.  This one has a girl main character, Abby.  She isn't really into school, though she is a bright kid, she just doesn't like to study and do homework and all of the stuff that school requires.  When she is faced with having to repeat sixth grade, however, she decides to get series about school.  Her teacher gives her the extra credit assignment of taking on a pen pal and reporting back on what she learns through the experience.  Because she lives in the very flat state of Illinois and has always longed to climb a mountain, she decides to write a student in Afghanistan.  When her letter is received in a small town near but not too near Kabul, the town leaders decide that they need to have a girl write to Abby, because it wouldn't be proper to have a boy do it.  The thing is, they want to make sure that the letter writer does a really good job with the English, so that folks in America don't think that they are just a bunch of dummies.  Amira Bayat will be the offical pen pal but her other brother Sadeed will be helping.  Sadeed finds a way to communicate directly with Abby, and the way that the two correspond is touching and brilliant.  I completely fell in love with Sadeed.  Such a great, great, great book.  Abby is wonderful, too.