Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Extra Credit

There’s a fine line between getting extra credit and having no life. Here are a few sure signs you’re doing too much extra credit: You don’t use up your maximum allowed text messages for the month. You haven’t thought about Hannah Spivero for six straight hours. The screen on your television is cold. Teachers actually smile when they see you coming. The world’s most reluctant reader, Charlie Joe Jackson, is becoming an expert in extra credit. How is that possible? His report card is so grim that Charlie Joe has promised his parents that he’ll get straight As so they won’t send him to an academic summer camp. Now, instead of finagling ways to get out of reading, Charlie Joe is staying late after school, posing for art class, and even acting in a school play about the inventor of paper towels .