Punching the Air

By: Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam

Narrated by: Ethan Herisse

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 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.

Freedom can't be boxed

This novel takes the form of poetry to convey its message. That is why it hits, and hits hard.
Through the difficulties lived by the protagonist, the poetic voice finds a way for art, faith, hope and freedom.
What should we do when facing inequalities? what should we do when faced with a broken system?
For a reader coming from developping countries, these are not uncommon questions, but the answers are yet to be shared.

Good book young teens!!

Narrator was great, but started off kind of slow to me. I had to start it over while on a long ride then I got into it. I also don't like how it ended, it did not complete the story what happened to him, did the boy ever tell what really happened.

a Story for the Soul

the poetry hits at your very core. the narrator is calming and impactful. no matter your race or circumstance, be angry at the injustices you see around you.

Really engaging and fast moving.

This is one of those novels/conscious stream of thought where the protagonist is wrongfully accused and instead of allowing the injustice of the American judicial and criminal infrastructure weigh him down, he rises. I loved how the authors Ibi and Yusef (one of the exonerated five) use the concept and themes from art and literature to show hope and the possibility of self-redemption.

Heartrending

Beautifully written and heartrendingly sad, this book touched me so much. It was short and awful and hopeful all in such a short volume. I didn’t agree with all the decisions made by this young boy, but I could understand and empathize with them. Just lovely.