Punching the Air

By: Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam

Narrated by: Ethan Herisse

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. Perfect 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, he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. 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's bright future is upended: he 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.

©2020 Ibi Zoboi (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

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.

Incredible. Get it.

Read it. The poetic nature of the words and the ability of the narrator will make you sob.

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.

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.

To Be Heard and Seen

A riveting performance, both on the page and through my speakers.

I highly recommend *listening* to (or, reading aloud) Zoboi’s and Salaam’s gorgeous, lyrical beauty.

The story is, unfortunately, far too rote for anyone paying attention to the (in)justice (mis)educational systems in America, so as with almost all of my favorite pieces of art—written and recorded—it’s far less about the plot than it is about the way their words inhabit the page, on both a visually aesthetic level, but also on a mellifluous, rhythmic one.

The imagery, the images, the imagination of it all.

Heartbreaking. Heart-rending. Hard to not wince and wonder and well up with weariness (at yet another tale as old as American time) and cries for war (against these systems of oppression).

Read it. Listen to it. Learn it. Know it. Understand it.

Then, *do* something about it.

This, my friends, is #artasactivism

The Turth

The system is not here to help anyone but to Tear down our black children.

Amazing story.

Amazing story, yet unfortunately, it was too short. I wanted the poetic prose to continue framing the conflict between ther protagonist vs society (the bias school to prison system and the industrial prison complex). But I do appreciate the cliffhanger at the end.

Spectacular

I’m so very glad i listened to this. I’m so sick of white privileged people that cannot understand how very unbalanced our society is, especially the prison system. My heart aches for all the Mama’s of these young people being snatched away by a system that is so very racist. Slavery was abolished, can our prison system and our police system please catch up. If black people are angry, it’s righteous anger and we, not them, need to figure out how to set it right.

Loved this young man’s passion and perspective. Great read!!!