Punching The Air By: Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam

Punching The Air
Author: Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam
Publisher: Harper Collins/ Balzar + Bray

Published: September 2020
Format: ARC Paperback/ Hardcover
Pages: 400
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary:

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?