Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet

Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet

An exciting middle-grade debut starring a Muslim boy with a huge imagination. An NPR Best Book of the Year. Welcome to the imaginative brain of Omar! Omar and his family have just moved, and he is NOT excited about starting at a new school. What if the work is too hard or the kids are mean or the teacher is a zombie alien?! But when Omar makes a new best friend, things start looking up. That is, until a Big Mean Bully named Daniel makes every day a nightmare! Daniel even tells Omar that all Muslims are going to be kicked out of the country . . . Could that possibly be true? Luckily, Omar's enormous imagination and goofy family help him get through life's ups and downs. Omar's funny, relatable narrative is the perfect answer to the call for both mirrors and windows to fill bookshelves with diverse stories. -An NPR Best Book of the Year -USBBY Outstanding International Book Selection -2020 Global Read Aloud Selection -Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year -Middle East Book Award Nominee -New York Public Library Best Book of the Year (top 10) ★ “In their debut, Mian and Mafaridik create a relatable and hilarious story . . . Exploding with personality and imagination, Omar is an easy character to love.” — Booklist, starred review "A very kid-friendly and appealingly honest story about being different, being labeled 'other.'" — The New York Times Book Review “Wildly imaginative Omar’s free-association narrative, laced with expressive hand lettering and Mafaridik’s playfully exaggerated line art, remains chipper and uplifting.” – Publishers Weekly “Mian seamlessly weaves Islamic values and teachings through Omar's chatty narration . . . Readers will be excited to see where Omar’s imagination will take him next.” — Kirkus Reviews “The playful text is bolstered with illustrations throughout that show off [Omar’s] creativity and imagination. A great #OwnVoices story for children to learn more about connection and empathy.” —S chool Library Journal “Elementary school readers will find both a funny, relatable new companion and a primer on Muslim family life with the start of this series. . .  Mafaridik’s cartoony artwork and illustrative lettering visualize Omar’s imagination.” — The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Zanib Mian was a science teacher before launching a small independent publisher, Muslim Children's Books. Passionate about representation in children's publishing, she is on the panel of judges for the prestigious Young Muslim Writers Awards. Nasaya Mafaridik is based in Indonesia. Self-taught, she has a passion for children's books and bright, colourful stationery. Chapter 1 KHAATOOOO! There was a big puddle of spit on my little brother’s forehead. It was mine. But, PHEW, he was still sleeping. Let me tell you what happened: I had been in my bed, attempting to have a good night’s sleep, when suddenly I was being chased through the playground by a teacher who had GREEN SLIME OOZING out of his ears and slugs for fingernails! It was a dream. A BAD dream, of course. When I woke up, I was extremely happy that I wasn’t about to be a monster’s dinner. I breathed slowly to get my heartbeat back to normal, instead of like it was on a TRAMPOLINE. I remembered that my mom told me to spit toward my shoulder three times if I have a nightmare. That’s supposed to get rid of SHAYTAN, who is the uglyhead who causes bad dreams. I REALLY wanted to get rid of Shaytan! So I conjured up a bucketful of spit in my mouth and SHOT it out over my left shoulder. THAT’LL TEACH HIM! I just hoped it would dry before morning so nobody would know I’d spat on my little brother by accident. I put my head back on the pillow for an eighth of a second, but then I heard a really loud and really annoying sound. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH! (See? VERY loud and VERY annoying.) It was Esa. I guess he’d noticed the spit ball after all and wasn’t impressed.  Mom appeared at the door to our room in her pajamas, looking all bleary-eyed.  She said, “What’s the matter, Esa?” Esa was still busy wailing, so I said, “Spit ball.” “Not again, Omar!” “WAAAAAAAAAA!” I covered my head with the pillow. Then Dad came in saying that it would be nice if we could have AT LEAST 1 NIGHT in the week where poor Esa isn’t woken up by my SHENANIGANS. I asked him what that means for the BILLIONTH time. He rolled his eyes for the BILLIONTH time. I heard my big sister, Maryam, growling in her room. (She definitely doesn’t like mornings very much.)  Mom said it was almost Fajr time anyway. I wondered if Allah was going to give me a reward for waking them up for Fajr.   Chapter 2 The reason I had been having bad dreams, especially bad dreams about teachers, was because I was going to be starting at a new school. This made me feel like there were SNAKES IN MY TUMMY and some of them were sneaking up and squeezing my heart. I don’t like things to change. It would be so much more convenient and better for everybody if things always just stayed the same