Punching the Air

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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. This is a novel filled with pain, but also with hope as the main character expresses himself through poetry and art. The novel becomes all the more poignant when you consider that one of the authors- Yusef Salaam- was himself wrongfully convicted of a violent crime as a teenager and served six years in prison before being exonerated. This won't take you long to read, but it will leave an impact and I would absolutely recommend it. The audiobook is beautifully done as well. I received an advance audio copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. 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? Gutterman, Annabel; Katzman, Rebecca; Maunz, Shay (2020-11-24). "The 10 Best YA and Children's Books of 2020". Time . Retrieved 2022-01-22.

The highlight for me turned out to be the schooling system for such 'troublesome' kids while being behind the bars. Punching the Air is a young adult novel-in-verse by Ibi Zoboi and Dr. Yusef Salaam, published September 1, 2020 by Balzer + Bray. Zoboi and Salaam decided to write the novel in verse to mirror Amal's connection to poetry, as well as to incorporate the concept of hip-hop, which Salaam refers to as "a genre that was created by us for us. It is the language of the people. It is a protest language. It is a way that we codify the more powerful and salient ideas. Poetry can capture a feeling and when it's being read or spoken, it's magnetic." [9] Reception [ edit ] The authors of Punching the Air Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam says this book is “the power of art, faith and transcendence un the most debilitating circumstances. It is out hope that all readers will experience the journey of a boy who finds himself in a heated moment where one wrong move threatens his future and how he uses art to express his truth, THE TRUTH.” This book made my heart hurt. A short story, told in verse, drawing on Yusef Salaam’s experiences and channeled into Amal, a young man wrongly convicted of a crime. Injustice and justice was on the menu here and the use of verse poignantly reverberated the message.

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Schulte-Cooper, Laura (2021-02-17). "ALSC announces 2021 Notable Children's Recordings". News and Press Center . Retrieved 2022-01-22.

Courtney, Pentland (2021-03-01). "Punching the Air". School Library Journal . Retrieved 2022-01-22. Amal sees the injustice in the system, sees how institutional racism marks him as a criminal even though he is a kid. He sees the very different life choices laid out for him and his friends, and for the white kids. The writing part didn't do much. The poetry lines, the verse didn't work for me. It felt like it was trying too hard but it did its job well of telling the story of the boy. It presented well the angst, the confusion, the loneliness, the beliefs of the narrator but I didn't get that connected to the character. I wanted to feel so much more for tthe character and the story. Stevenson, Deborah (2020). "Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi". Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. 74 (2): 110. doi: 10.1353/bcc.2020.0724. ISSN 1558-6766. I haven't met a kind and wonderful teacher in my life till date. I find teachers in movies and books (nonfiction, memoirs, autobiographies) far more inspirational.

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Barbiero, Delfina V. " 'Punching the Air' review: Yusef Salaam of Central Park Five pens moving racial justice story". USA TODAY . Retrieved 2022-01-22. That's the Thirteenth Amendment, known for being the abolition of slavery. Except it didn't abolish slavery. Slavery still exists. Zoboi and Salaam met at Hunter College in 1999, two years before Salaam was exonerated for allegedly assaulting and raping a woman in Manhattan's Central Park. [8] Although Punching the Air is not based on Salaam's experience of racial profiling, “Amal’s character is inspired by him as an artist and as an incarcerated teen who had the support of his family, read lots of books, and made art to keep his mind free.” [8]

The narrative in this novel had a moment-to-moment feeling that was pretty tension ridden and I read much of it with that sense of doom and despair conveyed by Amal’s feelings. There were some areas of the book that I felt were particularly impactful – both sides defendant and perpetrator were the same age, yet one was referred to as a boy and the other a man. That point really hit me deep. There were many more examples but I don’t want to spoil. This is also written in verse, and I think it lends itself very well to the text - giving Amal a more human, emotional connection to the reader as we get to experience Amal's life from his deepest, most inner thoughts. The prose are beautiful, and the imagery is perfectly pitched to match Amal's feelings of regret, remorse and grief at the loss of his future. I don't think I can express how important, poignant and devastating this novel was to read. Written in collaboration with Yusef Salaam, one of the exonerated five, this clearly draws heavily in Salaam's own experiences to help shape the main character of Amal. Amal is simply a boy, in the wrong place, who makes one mistake that leads to devastating consequences. If you are looking to explore this more, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is a must-read. For a look at the historical context of this issue, I also suggest reading Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (or Kendi's longer, more in-depth version: Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America).

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. Saunders, Barbara (2020-09-18). "Punching the Air - Book Review". Common Sense Media . Retrieved 2022-01-22. Best Fiction for Young Adults". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). 2021-01-14 . Retrieved 2022-01-22.

I like novels written in verse because I find them refreshing and something out of the box. I belie it is not as easy as it sounds to write a story with depth and everything only in verse. This was my first time reading something by Ibi Zoboi and I am glad I did. The co-author is Yusef Salaam who has been convicted of a crime he did not commit years ago. This is not Yusef’s story but it is definitely inspired by it and that makes it more realistic. In a positive review for Booklist, Terry Hong complimented the audiobook narrator, Ethan Herrise, for how he "embodies the novel in verse" with "careful, thoughtful precision." [8] Goldstein, Susannah; Hershberger, Katy; Knapp, Maggie; Leffel, Ashley; Riemer, Carla (2020-11-23). "Best Young Adult Books 2020 | SLJ Best Books". School Library Journal . Retrieved 2022-01-22. In general, yes, teachers! Can you be less cranky and not make your classes feel like someone else has punished you to do your job and in turn shove that hatred towards your students? I mean both parties hate classes because of this. And not all students are the same. Some are introverts and some can act well to get credits. It's your job to see into that and make out the difference yourselves.he lists the authors he reads: james baldwin, richard wright, toni morrison, octavia butler, ibram x kendi, michelle alexander, ta-nehisi coates.