Omar Rising by Aisha Saeed
📚 Omar Rising 📚
Author: Aisha Saeed
Publisher: @penguinkids
Age: 10+
Islamic Content: Muslim Characters
Concerns: boy/girl friendship
Summary:
Omar has won a scholarship to a private prestigious school, Ghalib Academy. He anticipates to join clubs and teams because for a boy like him, it is once in a lifetime opportunity. When he is told that scholarship boys are not allowed to join extracurricular activities, must have weekly community hours completed and maintain an A+ GPA, he can see the unjust classism he is up against.
Review:
Omar is the friend of Amal in Amal Unbound. This middle grade chapter book is an engaging read that keeps the reader reeled back in the book and rooting for Omar right from the beginning. The injustices of classism is well presented and easily digestible in this book for the readers. I love that there is depth in the different characters, assumptions are made about schoolmates and chances of friendship are given. In the entirety of the book, only Maghrib prayer is mentioned in the last chapter, no other Islamic references aside from the Muslim names of the characters. Omar and Amal grew up together so they know each other well but they recognize that they must maintain boundaries. However, they do have a secret meet up spot where they have private conversations without others being around. Other than that, the content itself is clean and offers so many beneficial lessons for the readers. I actually like this book and the resilience it presents, however, I do have to say that I don't feel the same way about Amal Unbound. This book is a great read.
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