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. 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.

Pasha, Omar T. (2022-01-18). "Punching the Air: Omar T. Pasha's 2021 BGHB Fiction and Poetry Honor Speech". The Horn Book . Retrieved 2022-01-22. 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.” What a beautiful, heart-wrenching, infuriating but hopeful journey. The story is about a teenage Alam who went against his gut instinct ended up in a situation where he made one wrong move that changed the course of his entire life. While this is not the story about Yusef Salaam, a prison abolitionist and one of the Exonerated Five, it does draw on some things that he experienced when he was wrongfully imprisoned.

If you’re not already familiar, this is inspired by the life of Yusef Salaam who was wrongly convicted at the age of 15. He’s part of the Exonerated Five. If you haven’t watched the Netflix series by Ava DuVernay, then I highly recommend it. It’s 4 episodes of gut-wrenching truth and injustice. The illustrations/formatting didn’t come across particularly well on the ebook galley but now I have a hard copy, I can appreciate how wonderful the formatting and design is. 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. Courtney, Pentland (2021-03-01). "Punching the Air". School Library Journal . Retrieved 2022-01-22.

Al-Mateen, Sylvia (2020-06-17). "Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam: Finding Power Within". Shelf Awareness . 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. SLJ Staff (2021-06-23). "2021 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winners Announced". School Library Journal . Retrieved 2022-01-22. i really appreciate when such evocative fiction can be used to teach young readers about important subjects (racism and our country's need for prison reform, in this case). Another is that Punching the Air really explains how the prison system in America is a form of legal slavery-- it is written in the Constitution.Schulte-Cooper, Laura (2021-02-17). "ALSC announces 2021 Notable Children's Recordings". News and Press Center . Retrieved 2022-01-22.

When you find yourself in dark places, there's always a light somewhere in that darkness, and even if that light is inside of you, you can illuminate your own darkness by shedding that light on the world.” 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). Al-Mateen, Sylvia (2020-06-17). "YA Maximum Shelf: Punching the Air". Shelf Awareness . Retrieved 2022-01-22. amal is a creative kid, and while incarcerated, self-expression through art is one of the only joys he is permitted. when that is taken from him, all that's left to do is read and study. 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.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. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Though their sentences have been overturned, there’s no way one can ever make up for a lifetime’s worth of trauma. Yet the narrative of this story was purposely chosen to provide hope.

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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? There's no point in failing your students again and again. No one improves like that. Constant sarcasm and belittling the students don't do anyone good. We have here a child who was accused, tried and convicted as if he was an adult. Yet his white counterpart was allowed to retain his status as a child. he lists the authors he reads: james baldwin, richard wright, toni morrison, octavia butler, ibram x kendi, michelle alexander, ta-nehisi coates. a b "CASA book club covers 'Punching the Air', features guest speaker". CHD. 2021-02-10 . Retrieved 2022-01-22.