En heel veel toestanden, dat is zeker! Planeet Omar is een boek voor kinderen van een jaar of 7 met een uitbundige typografie en lekker veel verbeelding. Ik zal niet zeggen dat er wat uit mijn neus spoot, maar hard lachen deed ik zeker. Omar’s mother insists that they introduce themselves to their new neighbour, Mrs Rodgers, who is very rude to the family and is later overheard on the phone to her son referring to Omar’s family as they Muslims’ in a negative way. Yet when mean Mrs Rogers has an accident, Omar's family is there to help. And when Omar and bully Daniel get stranded on a school trip in London, Omar realises that Danny isn't so tough after all... There is a range of teaching opportunities and themes the class teacher could use to help children have a discussion about the novel.

Omar and his family have had to move house due to Omar’s mother getting a new job. Omar’s family are of the Muslim faith and go to the Mosque. Omar starts his new school where he makes a new friend, Charlie. However, also in Omar’s class is Daniel who mean! During an art lesson, Daniel purposefully spills dirty paint water on Omar’s painting in an attempt to ruin it, but Omar manages to make it better and receives lots of praise from the teacher which infuriates Daniel.

I have to be honest, upon seeing the cover of this book I definitely wasn't pulled towards reading it. It looked too -comic like' for me. However, as the saying goes 'don't judge a book by it's cover', well that couldn't be more true in this case. I ended up loving it!! Firstly, the book is written in first person from the POV of Omar, a young muslim boy who has had to leave his old life behind and come and start a new one in England. I like this style of writing because it is almost childlike and very simplistic; therefore making it so much easier and accessible for any child to relate too. My favourite parts of the book were when Omar educated us as readers about his family traditions as Muslim's such as Ramadan and fasting and the different types of prayer. I think this would be a great book to use as a cross curricular link between RE and literacy, and I cannot wait to use it in my classroom. Likes: I really like how their are lots of metaphors and similies used by Omar as this is what makes him have such a great imagination. It is informative as well as humorous so it is a fun way to learn about Islam. This book could be used really nicely as a class text because it offers many opportunities for discussions to be held around some difficult and emotional topics such as bullying and feeling accepted. Also this book could be placed in the book corner providing children with opportunities to quietly engage with the book alongside friends or independently. Omar is a funny character, and I loved reading his observations about his family, being Muslim, his classmates, and everything else. I also enjoyed the family dynamics between his science-loving parents, his relatable older sister, and his mischief-making younger brother.

Use the example of Omar getting lost and encourage the children to write a first-person narrative to describe the emotions and feelings that Daniel and Omar may be experiencing. En hoewel Omar zich afvraagt waar hij dan naar toe moet als alle moslims uit het land geschopt worden, en hier toch wel wat zorgen over heeft, is het ook duidelijk dat deze jongen trots is op zijn geloof. Want tussen de zorgen door vertelt Omar in al zijn enthousiasme over zijn thuisleven, tradities die voor zijn eigen familie heel normaal zijn. Over het suikerfeest, de mooiste moskee die hij ooit heeft gezien. En met die trots kun je zelfde de ergste toestanden overwinnen, zelfs een pestkop. The issue of inclusion is present in many, if not all classrooms in some form or another, and literature is the perfect way to make children aware of some of the things that are happening around them, in a more subtle way. Not only could this be used in a fictional way during English lessons but also as a way of introducing citizenship for example in PSHE to older children who can relate and empathise with the themes of the book.

Our website is currently unavailable

Omar vond ik meteen een erg leuke hoofdpersoon, hij was grappig, vriendelijk, en hij was ook erg lief naar zijn zus en broertje. Ik vond het erg leuk hoe makkelijk hij vrienden maakte, ik zou ook wel die skill willen hebben, lijkt me een erg nuttige en handige skill.

Previously published as 'The Muslims', this was the winner of the Little Rebels Award in June 2018. The text has been revised, expanded with new scenes and re-illustrated. About This Edition ISBN: Planet Omar can link to stories about friendship and overcoming bullies, such as Cloud Busting. There is also links to books about acceptance of others such as Skellig by David Almond, Beegu by Alexis Deacon and Welcome to Our World by Moira Butterfield. There is also a link to The Twits by Ronald Dahl as Omar believes that people with ugly thoughts are ugly people and that appearance isn’t the key to being a good person. Ronald Dahl writes “If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely”.

Engage children with digital learning

Investigate other chapter books with sketchy pictures, such as Planet Omar Adventure and Horrid Henry books. Think about the similarities and differences between the books are the themes the same. A lot of Pakistani food is mentioned throughout the story so if the reader has some idea of what these foods are it would help them to visualise what is being discussed (however, taste testing would make a fun lesson!) I like the themes in the book and I enjoyed exploring Omar’s positive thoughts to help him understand that he is different. I liked the different fonts and pictures in the book. This will encourage children to read the book and challenge themselves to identify what the images represent.

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 I really enjoyed reading this book as I feel like it is very educational as it explains quite a lot about the Islam religion which can be useful when teaching children about Islam. Especially as it tells the reader about the different prayers that they do everyday, tells the reader about Ramadan and why they do it and also about the two different Eid's that Muslims celebrate throughout the year. Also, this book can teach children how they can stand up to bullies and what should do if they are being bullied in school. This book has excellent illustrations that go alongside the text and they are illustrations that make you feel like you are inside Omar's head and following him through every emotion that he feels. Use the example where Omar’s feeling frightened, nervous, or worried. The class teacher will encourage the children to write a diary entry to express the feelings of Omar’s imaginative world with the dragon (H20) helping him to overcome these feelings. The children could think about why the dragon is important to Omar and how it supports his thoughts and feelings It’s not so much a dislike of the book, but I don’t like that Mrs Rodgers and Daniel actually needed to revive an act of kindness before being non-judgmental. I think it’s a shame that this is what happens and children have to suffer this.it is commented on that Mrs Rodgers views are probably front what she has read in newspapers and how those of the Muslim faith are often linked to terrorism and that therefore is the basis of her opinions. Again, this is a true representation of how many people make their views and acts as a reminder to not always trust the media.

Summary

Ondertussen zien we ook dat Omars zus in de puberteit belandt is en dat ze daardoor soms, voor Omar, vreemd reageert. Opeens boos worden, weglopen, maar dan ook weer heel vrolijk en blij zijn. I really liked this book as it felt unique compared to other children's books I have read. This was in terms of it being informally written, being in 1st person and the use of different texts and fonts to reflect the characters feelings. The text and font also highlighted words that needed more emphasis and exaggeration. I also liked the fact that this book promotes diversity about a Muslim boy and is family but is also very informative about their religion and traditions. Therefore, I think this would be a great book to teach children about this religion in the classroom as it is a fun read and there are parts in the story that explain the relgion in very simplistic ways in an informal manner for children to understand. This book follows a young Muslim boy called Omar. Him and his family have just moved house as his mum has just gotten her dream job. As a result of this, he has to start a new school and this made him very nervous as he thought his new teacher might be an alien. As you read this book, you follow the everyday life of Omar and you also go through the struggles that he is encountering at school, specifically with a young boy called Daniel. However, later on in the book when Omar and Daniel get lost, they forget all of their differences and join together to try and find the rest of their class. As a reader I like how the author chose to present some of the words as illustrations as this made it easier to follow and was also engaging. Also I like how the author has explained many of the key words in a child friendly manned which would help both children and teachers to understand their meanings and read them within context. So give me all those troublesome boy books. Give me more of them even! Give me differently abled troublesome boys. Give me (please please give me) a troublesome transgender boy who gets into all kinds of mischief. Give me Native American boys. Give me Asian American boys. Give me boys with stutters and bald boys and army brats and all the different kinds of troublesome boys that are out there. To say nothing of equally troublesome girls! Omar is doing his part, but he can’t do it alone. If we want to show our child readers the wide, wonderful, wild world out there in all its myriad forms, we need as many different perspectives as we can find. And until that happens, let’s hand Omar to as many kinds as we can name. Because as far as I’m concerned, funny books that also prove to be smart and socially conscious (not to mention anti-racist) might help us get out of the mess this world is in.