Parents' Guide to Omar Rising

OMAR RISING begins in a small village in rural Pakistan. Omar Ali has just learned that he's received a scholarship to the elite Ghalib Academy for Boys, a remarkable opportunity for the son of a servant. It's an opportunity that can lead to a college education and a job that will allow him to buy a home for his widowed mother. When he arrives at Ghalib, he's surprised to see the letters "SB" on his student folder. He soon learns that any first-year student who's an SB (Scholarship Boy) won't be allowed to join any clubs or teams and that they'll be assigned "service hours" around the school, working in the kitchen, the laundry, or helping with grounds maintenance. Omar reluctantly puts aside his dreams of playing soccer and joining the astronomy club and soon settles in with a group of friends, some scholarship students and some, like Marwan, from rich families. But Aiden, the wealthy student in the room next door, is hostile and dismissive to Omar from the start and begins publicly calling him a "charity case." Omar does well in all his classes, except for the English class taught by the school's headmaster. No matter how hard he works, he can't get a good grade in the class. Faisal, an SB in his final year, shocks Omar by telling him about the school's "weed-out" system, designed to make certain any first-year SB with less than an A+ average won't be invited to return for a second year. The only hope for Omar and his two best SB friends is to call on their fellow students to rise up and help them change the system. But will wealthy and entitled students like Aiden agree to help them?