Punching the Air
Book Feature - Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
HBL Note: I can’t imagine a more timely book, given the current state of affairs. I have chills bringing this book feature to you. As the publicist for this book said, “Praised by Ibram X. Kendi, Jacqueline Woodson, and Jason Reynolds (NEED I SAY MORE?!), this book has already garnered five starred trade reviews and really probably doesn’t even need a publicist…” It is written by bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five. Punching the air is about a teenager who is wrongly imprisoned, revealing “the realities of the school to prison pipeline.” Scroll down to read more.
Book Feature - Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Book Feature - Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
From the publisher:
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.
Book Feature - Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
