Omar Rising - Softcover

Saeed, Aisha

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593108604 ISBN 13: 9780593108604

Verlag: Penguin Young Readers Group, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

In this compelling companion to New York Times bestseller Amal Unbound, Omar contends with being treated like a second-class citizen when he gets a scholarship to an elite boarding school.

When Omar gets a scholarship to the prestigious Ghalib Academy, it’s a game changer. It will give him, the son of a servant, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a better future—and his whole village is cheering him on. Omar can’t wait to dive into his classes, play soccer, and sign up for astronomy club—but those hopes are dashed when he learns first-year scholarship students can’t join clubs or teams; instead, they must earn their keep by doing chores. Even worse, it turns out the school deliberately “weeds out” scholarship kids by requiring them to get grades that are nearly impossible. Omar is devastated to find such odds stacked against him, but the injustice of it all motivates him to try to do something else that seems impossible: change a rigged system.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Aisha Saeed (aishasaeed.com) is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of books for children. Her middle grade novel Amal Unbound received multiple starred reviews and was a Global Read Aloud for 2018. Her picture book, Bilal Cooks Daal, received an APALA honor. Aisha is also a founding member of the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books™.  She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her family.

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Chapter 1

A gust of wind blows through the field as my friends and I wrap up our soccer game. It rustles through the neat rows of sugarcane growing behind us and sweeps over the orange trees in the distance.
     “That does it!” Fuad shouts. He kicks the soccer ball toward me. “I’m never playing with either of you again. I mean it this time.”
     “Don’t be such a sore loser,” Zaki responds. “It was a fun game.”
     “Only because you and Omar cheated,” Fuad says, pointing at me.
     I tilt my head. “Why is it whenever you win, it’s a hard-earned victory, but if anyone else does, they’re cheating?”
     “Admit it,” Zaki says. “Omar’s last goal was epic.”
     “Fine,” Fuad says grudgingly. “It wasn’t that bad.”
     “I’ll take it.” I grin. Coming from Fuad, halfhearted praise is basically a standing ovation.
     The soccer ball rolls until it settles next to my foot. As I kick it up to prop it under my arm, a wave of sadness washes over me. Fuad always vows never to play with us again, but this really is the last time I’ll be kicking the ball with him. There have been so many lasts lately. My last walk to the market yesterday. My last time feeding the chickens this morning. And tonight will be my last night sleeping in my own bed.
     Tomorrow, everything will change. Tomorrow, I head to boarding school: the Ghalib Academy for Boys. Which means very soon my home, my village, and scrimmage games like these will no longer be part of my ordinary, everyday life.
     It’s not that I don’t want to go. I filled out the forms myself. Asked my teacher for a recommendation. Sorted vegetables at the produce stand and cut sugarcane in the fields to save up for the application fee.
     When I got the call, my mother’s eyes lit up like a thousand stars. She hugged me so tight I thought she’d never let go. The son of a servant getting a scholarship to a place like Ghalib? It opened up my world in ways I could only begin to imagine. Now better things are actually within reach, like college and a job that earns enough money to buy a home for my mother and me. A real home, with bedrooms and sofas and rugs, not a one-room space where we’ve strung up curtains that we pretend are walls. Ghalib is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rewrite my destiny.
     “Isn’t that Amal?” Zaki asks. He points toward the gravel road that slices through our village.
     Following his gaze, I brighten. Fuad and Zaki are good friends, but Amal is like family. My mother works for her parents, and we live on their property, behind their house. Born three days apart, we’ve never known life without each other.
     “Your mother asked me to find you,” Amal says when she approaches with two of her younger sisters in tow. “She said it was important.”
     “Time for your partyyy!” Amal’s three-year-old sister sings out.
     “Safa!” Amal grimaces.
     “But don’t say anything,” says four-year-old Rabia, placing a finger solemnly on her lips. “It’s a surprise!”
     “It’s okay.” I laugh, looking at Amal’s stricken expression. “Auntie Fozia asked me for a list of my favorite sweets the other day. And Fuad let it slip when we started playing.”
     “No one can keep a secret except me, huh?” Amal exclaims.
     “Nope. Never.” I shake my head.
“Everyone’s just excited for you,” says Zaki.
     “Tell me about it.” Fuad rolls his eyes. “My dad won’t stop going on and on. ‘Why can’t you be more like Omar? You need to apply yourself.’ If I didn’t like you so much, I’d probably hate you.”
     “I just got lucky.” I flush.
     “There’s no lucky about it,” Amal says. “You earned it fair and square. Tomorrow will be amazing.”
     “Tomorrow?” Zaki repeats. “But school doesn’t start till next week.”
     “Ghalib starts a week earlier,” I remind him.
     “So today really was the last soccer game?” Fuad’s expression falls.
     “It’s not like I’m moving to Jupiter,” I say. “I’ll be back. Winter break. Summer—”
     “Yeah,” Fuad interrupts. “But it won’t be . . .” His voice trails off.
     But I know what he was going to say. And he’s right. It won’t be the same. Not even close.
     “So, are you ready for the partyyy?” Amal teases as the six of us walk down the road toward her home.
     “I tried all the sweets,” Safa says.
     “The laddu was my favorite!” Rabia chimes in.
     “Thanks for the taste-testing,” I tell them.
     When we reach the front door, Amal looks at me. “Pretend to be surprised, okay? Please? Everyone’s so excited.”
     “I’ll do my very best,” I promise.
     But it isn’t hard to look surprised. As soon as Amal opens the door, my jaw drops. Her home is packed! Neighbors fill the main room and spill into the courtyard outside. Fairy lights are strung along the windows.
     “There’s the man of the hour!” Auntie Fozia sings out. She stands beside a table covered with trays and trays of sweets.
     Everyone claps and cheers.
     “Wow.” I blink. “Thank you!”
     “Great work, Omar.” Amal’s mother ruffles my hair.
     “Always knew you could do it,” says another neighbor.
     “That’s right.” Auntie Fozia nods. “Not every day someone from our village heads off to one of the most prestigious schools in Pakistan.”
     “More like not ever,” her daughter Hafsa chimes in. “You’re the first to get into a school like that, but you won’t be the last!” The crowd laughs.
     “Oh.” I shift. “I don’t—”
     “It’s true.” Amal’s father, Uncle Imtiaz, smiles. “You carry all of our pride with you, Omar. Carry it well.”
     Looking at everyone’s beaming faces, I’m filled with a warm glow. I thank my neighbors, then grab a plate and fill it with carroty gajrela, yellow laddus, and sticky-sweet jalebis. So many desserts I can’t fit them all on my plate—I’ll have to come back for seconds, maybe thirds! My friends and I settle at the edge of the open-air courtyard as Banu and Shamu, the two farm kittens, beeline straight for me. Shamu sidles up to me and purrs. Banu sniffs the sweets on my plate.
     “Sorry,” I say. They know I’m usually reliable for sneaking them leftovers. “Pretty sure cats...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593108604
• ISBN 13: 9780593108604
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland