New York Times and USA Today bestseller * Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor * Walter Award Winner * Goodreads Finalist for Best Teen Book of the Year * Time Magazine Best Book of the Year * Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year * School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Best Book of the Year * New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
From … the Year * New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
From award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. A must-read for fans of Jason Reynolds, Walter Dean Myers, and Elizabeth Acevedo.
The story that I thought
was my life
didn’t start on the day
I was born
Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, because of a biased system he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated. Then, one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white.
The story that I think
will be my life
starts today
Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?
With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth in a system designed to strip him of both.
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In this beautifully rendered book, we are reminded again of how brilliant and precarious our Black Lives are and how art can ultimately heal us.
Stories, at their best, will break something old in you or build something new. Remarkably, Punching The Air does both. Zoboi and Salaam have created nothing short of a masterwork of humanity, with lyrical arms big enough to cradle the oppressed, and metaphoric teeth sharp enough to chomp on the bitter bones of racism. This is more than a story. This is a necessary exploration of anger, and a radical reflection of love, which ultimately makes for an honest depiction of what it means to be young and Black in America.
Punching the Air is the profound sound of humanity in verse. About a boy who uses his creative mind to overcome the creativity of racism. About a boy who uses the freedom of art to overcome his incarceration. About you. About me. Utterly indispensable.
I would say this was really good. Showing what the black community has to go with the justice system especially black men. This book showed a lot of character development during the story with the things jail did mentally with him throughout.
I read a variety of types of books, and this was unlike any I have read before. I couldn’t put it down. It was so unique in the writing style itself which reflects more of who the main character is, I believe. The story itself is told throughout while current circumstances are taking place, so I was drawn in to keep reading to put together the entire story of what occurred. It does provide some hope throughout.
Although it is based on racial injustices that occurred years ago, I fear racial injustices are still as prevalent today, and that grieves me. I don’t understand how there can be so much prejudice over the color of one’s skin still to this day, but I was not raised that way.
Great book. More people should read it and learn from it. Well done. It is based on a true story, and we hear more and more about these types of issues in the news these days, but I am sure there are many more we don’t know about. I pray for change.
So poetically written and great visuals that had me hooked. Amal was a great character who’s story was one that seriously broke my heart. Ibi Zoboi hits on a lot of truth’s when it comes to young men of color and how the justice system fails us. Not only that, Amal suffers from racial profiling and isn’t given the innocent until proven guilty benefit, but rather in a, “it was only a matter of time until he did something to end up in jail.” Its not fair and it isn’t right. There are too many people of color facing sentences for crimes they did not commit and in a system where justice and a fair trial should be the main objective goes out the window when it comes to the stereotypes and judgments associates with black people.
What choked me up was the raw emotion Amal felt. Yet there was so much power behind every word written to put us in this real person’s shoes. Hats off to the author for expertly crafting this story the way they did. It speaks to their talent. I’m so happy to have read this book and more stories like this need to be told.
Powerful. Poignant and beautiful. This book shouldn’t just be read, it should be devoured. When all hope seems lost you should read this book, it’ll renew your faith in yourself (if not humanity) and remind you that you are strong. You are powerful and you do matter. You’ll get through it. This book only enforces that.
Thank you to Netgalley and the authors for allowing my to review this and I volunteered to leave an unbiased review. This is so powerful. I have read books by one of these authors before and enjoyed them a lot, and although the subject matter doesn’t lend itself to be a”fun” read, I enjoyed my time with this. It’s filled with as much anguish as it is hope and that really shines through with this being told in verse as opposed to regular prose.
content warnings for bullying, violence, brutality by both the police and prison guards, radicalized violence and use of the N word, many times.