Punching the Air

by Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam

Genres: YA Mysteries & Thrillers; Authors of color; YA Contemporary; Book Prizes & Literary Awards

Synopsis

New York Times and USA Today bestseller * Walter Award Winner * Goodreads Finalist for Best Teen Book of the Year * Time Magazine Best Book of the Year * Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year  * School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Best Book of the Year * New York Public Library Best Book of the Year

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. One of the most acclaimed YA novels of the year, this New York Times and USA Today bestseller is a must-read for fans of Jason Reynolds, Walter Dean Myers, and Elizabeth Acevedo.

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, because of a biased system he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated. 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 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.

Release date: September 1, 2020

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Print pages: 400

Sample

Birth

Umi gave birth to me

at home

She has a video

and every birthday

she makes me watch

When I was little

I would run away

Umi would laugh and say

Come here, boy

You gotta remember

where you came from!

She’d chase me around

that small apartment

and I’d cover my eyes and

pretend to be gagging

That’s nasty, Mama, I’d say

That’s life, Amal

You have to respect it

she’d say

Umi was in this inflatable pool

in the middle of our living room

with the midwife next to her

My father was holding the camera

She was taking deep fire breaths

eyes closed tight, not even screaming

almost praying

Then the midwife plunged

both her hands into the pool

And then

there I was rising out of water

Squirming little brown thing

barely crying

big eyes wide

as if I’d already done this before

as if I’d already been here before

Umi says

I was born with an

old, old soul