Punching the Air

Punching the Air is a profoundly moving young adult novel-in-verse co-written by award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five. It tells the story of Amal Shahid, a talented Black artist and poet who, at sixteen, is wrongfully convicted after an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood. The book explores themes of racial injustice, systemic bias, and the power of art as Amal navigates the dehumanizing prison system. It's a raw, honest look at the emotional toll of incarceration and the resilience required to maintain one's identity and fight for justice. This book is ideal for young adults aged 12-18, offering a compelling narrative that sparks important conversations about race, justice, and self-expression.

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. source: https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062996503/punching-the-air/