Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet by Zanib Mian
Ages: 8 - 11 years
The blurb: Welcome to the imaginative brain of Omar! You might not know me yet, but once you open this book you’ll laugh so hard that snot will come out of your nose.
Surprising fact: The author Zanib Mian really likes observing all kinds of people's natural behaviour, from witnessing their walking, speaking and facial expressions. As well as enjoying being around people that make her laugh (she has an inner child inside her), while sometimes jotting down notes for interesting jokes for later reference materials.
Christopher's review: The ‘Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet’ is a bizarre and truly funny book to read. From reading both the book’s blurb and the pre-chapter small introduction of Omar’s family, I knew that I was about to have a good time.
Omar is literally one of the funniest and most curious boys I have ever read about. His imagination and the way he sees the world, thinks and reacts to any kind of situation is as a creative child would.
That is also shown in the plasmatics texts popping out throughout the pages as well, and how the words keep on constantly changing shapes, sizes and forms when Omar is really expressing his emotions. As well creating wonderful grand to tiny creatures and shapeless product materials in any scenario (Like having a friendly dragon).
For example; in Chapter 4 during ‘Science Sunday’, Omar describes his baby brother Esa having “ants in his pants” because he always keeps on moving anywhere and he can’t sit still. In Chapter 2, you will see the snakes wiggling in the page because Omar is very nervous of starting in a brand new school and feels that he has “snakes in my tummy”. And lastly, in Chapter 6 (and onwards) with Omar’s new teacher Mrs Hutchinson, he can tell and imagine that her “springy auburn curls” hair are expressive and tell a story of her day.
More importantly, in this book, we get to see, learn and understand of Omar’s religion (Islam) and culture. As well as moving to a new house, school, making new friends and dealing with a bit of trouble along his journey, we also get to witness and enjoy Omar's everyday life & his excited Musilm family.
P.S. Reading this book makes you feel nostalgic, somehow.
Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet is available to buy from: