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.