FernFolio

Benny ought to be having the time of his life; he has led his team to victory in the Primary Schools County Hurling Final, and Wexford has finally made it to the All-Ireland Hurling Final, but his father has been transferred to Tunisia with his company, EuroGas.  So, instead of playing pickup games with his friends, and angling for tickets to the All-Ireland game, he’s had to pack up his hurling stick and accompany his family to Sfax.
Within days of his arrival in Marhaba village, the gated and guarded enclave built for EuroGas, Benny has hurt the feelings of his younger, artsy brother, George, antagonised his parents, annoyed the guards, frustrated his hippy teachers, Harmony and Bob, and alienated his classmates.  Though on some levels he likes the ragtag bunch of foreigners in his class, Benny can’t stop himself from rebuffing their overtures of friendship with his smart-alecky comments and his heavy sarcasm.  His years at St. Jerome’s have taught him that “you had to sort out, or be sorted,” and no amount of encouragement or group talks works against this bone-deep training.
Warned off the expensive new soccer field by Mr. Gama, the head of security for Marhaba village, Benny finds himself a spot to practice his hurling shots in an abandoned area littered with construction debris, next to the wall that encircles the compound.  A skinny little Tunisian boy shows up on top of the wall and watches him shoot his tennis ball against the wall.  When, after a couple of traded insults, the kid flicks his cigarette butt at his head, Benny responds by blasting the tennis ball at him, only to find that the kid has snatched the ball out of the air, and disappeared over the other side of the wall.
Annoyed over the loss of his only ball, Benny bides his time, and keeps his eye out for the kid.  He realises that the Tunisian boy must live in the lean-to shack built against the outside of the compound wall.  Armed with his hurling stick, he climbs over the wall and sneaks into the shack, where he finds and retrieves his tennis ball.  Only he is caught by the Tunisian kid, who roars up on a battered old moped.  Benny makes a break for the wall, only to be chased by the kid on the moped, and, in his bid to escape, inadvertently whacks the kid across the forehead with his hurley.  Furious, the kid grabs the stick from Benny’s hands, slams it against the wall, and breaks it.
With no prospect of any hurling, either on the field or on TV, Benny’s morale takes a further dip, aided by his accidental spilling of food and drink all down the dress Grace, the only classmate to continue to try to befriend him.  Then he finds his hurley, carefully repaired, propped up against the front door of his family’s house, and realises the Tunisian kid has fixed it for him.  Driven to pay a return visit to the home of the little Tunisian, he introduces himself to and becomes friends with Omar, an orphan who lives by his wits on the streets of Sfax.
The two boys become fast friends, sharing a certain recklessness and spirit of adventure.  Though they don’t speak the same language, Omar, a huge fan of TV, does speak a weird form of television English, and Benny rapidly learns some rudimentary Arabic.  Together, the boys play soccer with Omar’s friends, practice hurling, and go for wild spins on Omar’s moped.  A timely lie to Benny’s parents has them convinced that Omar is the son of one of the guards, and the boys are soon “Bee Gees,” brothers.
Then one evening an unusually sombre Omar invites Benny to his shack for dinner, and Benny accepts, though he’s supposed to be minding his younger brother, George, while their parents go out with friends.  That night, Benny learns Omar’s painful secret, and is caught speeding through Sfax on a moped while his brother is at home alone.  Benny is grounded for months, and required to follow a strict schedule of schoolwork and chores.  Angry and disappointed, his parents refuse to hear a word about Omar, whom Mr. Gama, the head of security, has labelled a thief and a menace, and order Benny to have nothing further to do with the boy.
But, when Mr. Gama and his men become threats to Omar’s safety, Benny discovers that their friendship is more important than getting allowance or an end to being grounded.  He takes off with Omar on a wild and desperate ride to protect the only thing that matters to the Tunisian.
Written by Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, Benny and Omar is a story about friendship and brotherhood, and the bonds that can unite despite differences in culture, religion, language or finances.  Written in the words of a kid from County Wexford, it is at times hilariously funny, yet its examination of the struggles of two boys trying to find their way in the world is both loving and lovely.  This book is not to be missed.
FernFolio Editor