This book was fantastic. It’s a collaboration between Ibi Zobi and Yusef Salaam, best known as an inspirational speaker and one of the exonerated five. This is not Yusef’s story, but it has similarities. Amal was wrongfully convicted. A mediocre lawyer and another boy in a coma lead to his guilty verdict and time in a juvenile facility. The words flow so well. It’s almost a shame I didn’t read this novel in verse, but the lyrical quality of the audiobook is like the best song ever heard. The reader is enveloped in the story. We follow Amal through the court battle, and then through his time locked up. My guy is a corrections officer and found himself just as engaged as i was. He freely said, it’s sad, but many institutions are like this. And Tattoo should be the first staff member “defunded”. Uggghhhh. To think people like that work with juveniles. I love that Amal didn’t give up. That he kept learning, both by books, and about himself. Amal was not a “thug”, but a student of life at the wrong place and the wrong time. This was a fantastic listen, and I am sure the read is just as great. This will be on many best of best lists, as well as genre and subject lists for years to come.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC of the audiobook for Punching the Air.

I'm blown away. Punching the Air technically the story of Amal (meaning hope in Arabic), but it serves as more of a vehicle to demonstrate how the american judicial is biased against Black Americans.

After Amal gets stuck in a 'wrong place, wrong time' situation, he goes from art school to prison. Even in his extremely liberal art school, Amal faced constant stereotyping and discrimination from peers and teachers, labeling his actions as 'disruptive' when similar actions taken by his white peers would simply leave them with the label of 'class clown'. Punching the Air follows through on this, demonstrating how in every single aspect of his life, even the well intentioned adults around Amal consistently set him up for failure and disappointment.

In prison, artful, poetic, Amal struggles to cope with his now much-smaller world while contemplating his life, the notion of guilt and innocence, and racism/ racial prejudice and how he can show and cope with his struggles through his art.

Told stunning verse brought beautifully to life by narrator Ethan Herrise, this is the type of story that everyone needs to experience.

I really didn’t know what to expect from this one. When i requested it, i didn’t recognize either of the authors names right away. But it quickly became obvious that even though this story was fiction, much of the feelings and experiences had happened and were real. When a story can convey those things so well it becomes incredibly powerful. And not only that, but it was written beautifully. I don’t think I’ve read something so well written and poetic since reading Kiese Laymon’s Heavy last year. I stayed up until 3am to finish this book because i wanted to get it all “read” in one sitting. Wow. Just wow. I’ve read about 100 books this year and this is definitely in the top 3.

4/4.5

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam tells the story of 16 year old Amal Shahid, aspiring poet and artist, whose bright future is upended when he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. The story portrays in verse the unfairness of the school and criminal justice systems towards the African American population.

This book was hard and challenging to read but at the same time very powerful and emotional. Going into this book I didn't know much about Yusef Salaam's past of being wrongfully imprisoned for almost seven years for the assault and rape of a 28 year old caucasian woman in New York when he was just 15 years old. I highly recommend looking up the Central Park Jogger Case before reading Punching the Air l to help add to the impact of this crucial and timely book. I highly recommend!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Balzer + Bray for sending me this Audiobook for an honest review

Usually I have a hard time reading novels told in poem but listening to the audiobook really helped, and made the story more personal. This is a haunting, but powerful read. I wanted to see if he did get out of jail, but I realized the story really wasn’t about that. It was about Amal finding himself. Finding hope. Finding creativity, at the hardest part in his life thus far. I think this is such a necessary and important read this day in age. Amal was written so well, and I just wanted to jump into the story and give him a hug. As for the audiobook aspect, the narrator was amazing. He really made me feel as though he was Amal, and he was telling his story to only me. I would recommend this book to anyone, because as I said, it is very relevant at the moment and voices need to be heard.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49151299-punching-the-air" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Punching the Air" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1584643837l/49151299._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49151299-punching-the-air">Punching the Air</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5241080.Ibi_Zoboi">Ibi Zoboi</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3508351291">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Thank you to Netgalley and Balzer + Bray for sending me this Audiobook for an honest review<br /><br />Usually I have a hard time reading novels told in poem but listening to the audiobook really helped, and made the story more personal. This is a haunting, but powerful read. I wanted to see if he did get out of jail, but I realized the story really wasn’t about that. It was about Amal finding himself. Finding hope. Finding creativity, at the hardest part in his life thus far. I think this is such a necessary and important read this day in age. Amal was written so well, and I just wanted to jump into the story and give him a hug. As for the audiobook aspect, the narrator was amazing. He really made me feel as though he was Amal, and he was telling his story to only me. I would recommend this book to anyone, because as I said, it is very relevant at the moment and voices need to be heard.