But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds, Walter Dean Myers, and Elizabeth Acevedo.Īmal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. If you’re wanting to avoid any spoilers, you are welcome to jump to the TL DR summary at the bottom of the page if you’d prefer!įrom 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. In general, though I felt disconnected at times, this is still a really important and unique story that I would recommend without hesitation.īelow you will find a more thorough review containing my thoughts about the book.

I think this story may have been more impactful when listened to as an audiobook (although this would mean missing out on some of the illustrations and visual characteristics of the poetry). There were many instances in which I was confused by his reactions to certain situations, or times in which I wasn’t sure of how I was supposed to interpret a character or their actions. I could feel the bigger feelings that Amal was experiencing (anger, fear, injustice, hope, hopelessness, etc.), but never really felt like I knew him on a deeper level. While the poetry is exquisitely written, I felt a sense of disconnect from the characters and overall story. It follows his experience as he is locked up in a juvenile detention center and how he faces a variety of challenges (both internal and external). Spoiler-Free Review: “Punching the Air” is a YA novel-in-verse that follows Amal, a black and Muslim teen boy who is wrongfully convicted of a crime that he did not commit.

Regardless, it’s still one that is well worth reading and one that I would recommend to any teen or adult reader. It had so many important themes and was beautifully written in verse, but there was something that left me feeling a little disconnected from the story as a whole. This was a really interesting book, and one that is taking me a little longer than usual to process my feelings about.

Punching the air book