Punching the Air

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL

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 the Noughts & Crosses series and The Hate U Give.
One fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighbourhood escalates into tragedy. Boys just being boys turns out to be true only when those boys are white.

Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal Shahids bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didnt commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns totherefuge 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 forthetruth, in a system designed to strip him of both.

Reviews

Zoboi and Salaam have created nothing short of a masterwork of humanity, with lyrical arms big enough to cradle the oppressed, and metaphoric teeth sharp enough to chomp on the bitter bones of racism. This is more than a story. This is a necessary exploration of anger, and a radical reflection of love, which ultimately makes for an honest depiction of what it means to be young and Black in America. Jason Reynolds, award-winning, bestselling author of Long Way Down

Punching the Air is the profound sound of humanity in verse. About a boy who uses his creative mind to overcome the creativity of racism. About a boy who uses the freedom of art to overcome his incarceration. About you. About me. Utterly indispensable. Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Stamped and How to Be an Antiracist

In this beautifully rendered book, we are reminded again of how brilliant and precarious our Black Lives are and how art can ultimately heal us. Jacqueline Woodson, award-winning, bestselling author of Brown Girl Dreaming

Praise for BLACK ENOUGH, edited by Ibi Zoboi

A powerful collection that opens the readers eyes to the breadth and diversity of contemporary experience in America June Sarpong, author ofDiversify

A breath of fresh air . . . nuanced and necessary. Kirkus Reviews(starred review)

The stories, all worth savoring, share a celebratory outlook on black teenagers fully and courageously embracing life. Publishers Weekly(starred review)

Praise for AMERICAN STREET by Ibi Zoboi

Self-assured, elegant and utterly captivating. The New York Times

Fierce and beautiful. Booklist(starred review)

Author Bio

Ibi Zoboi was born in Haiti, and holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Book Review, and The Rumpus, among others. She is the author of American Street, a US National Book Award finalist. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and three children. You can find her online at www.ibizoboi.net.