My local bookseller Beachside Bookshop has kindly given me a big bag of books to read this month. Yesterday I picked up Welcome to Planet Omar. This is new book - I had an advanced reader copy. This book will be available this month. I read it all in one sitting and yes it it that good. I thought I might post some quotes from the author:
People like me simply weren’t in
story books, when I was young.
Muslims may just be the most
misunderstood group of people on the planet. I had to set it straight somewhat,
which is why I chose to write a funny middle grade book about an ordinary
Muslim family.
When I heard of the surge in
faith-based bullying in schools, I knew I had to contribute something positive
to the world that would challenge these stereotypes.
For those readers that don’t have
Muslim friends, I thought it would be great to use humour as a tool to open a
window into the lives of a Muslim family, to shed some light on things that
they might have always wondered about, but were too polite to ask – for
instance, why we fast or why we wear hijab.
In this book I learnt about Ramadan, the two Eid festivals and iftar in an easy to read and very funny story which at times was also surprisingly poignant. I totally agree with the endorsement on the back cover - this book is perfect for fans of Tom Gates and Diary of a Wimpy Kid but it is also so much more.
Here is an excellent review with more plot details. This book was originally published under the title The Muslims. Take a look at the trailer to see the format of the text which uses different fonts and text features and lots of white space making this book very easy to read. I don't like to use the words "an important book" but I would like to put this book into the hands of some young readers and hear their thoughts especially children in schools where they have perhaps had no contact with children from other faiths.
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