4.0
Punching the Air
New York Times and USA Today bestseller * 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 and is now available in paperback!
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.
Young Adult FictionArtComing of AgeDiversity & MulticulturalLaw & CrimeNovels in Verse
RELEASED2021
PUBLISHERHarperCollins Publishers
LENGTH386
LANGUAGEEN
Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times Bestselling author of MY LIFE AS AN ICE CREAM SANDWICH (Penguin, 2019), her middle grade debut, and the Young Adult novels PRIDE (HaperCollins, 2018) and AMERICAN STREET (HarperCollins, 2017), a National Book Award Finalist and recipient of five starred reviews. She is also the editor of BLACK ENOUGH: STORIES OF BEING YOUNG & BLACK IN AMERICA (HarperCollins, 2019). Ibi 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, the Horn Book Magazine, and The Rumpus, among others. As an educator\, she is the recipient of several grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council for her community-based programs for teen girls in both Brooklyn and Haiti. She’s worked for arts organizations such as Teachers & Writers Collaborative and Community Word Project as a writer-in-residence and teaching artist in New York City public schools. She lives in Maplewood, New Jersey with her husband and their three children. ([source](http://ibizoboi.net/about)
4.0
Punching the Air
by Ibi Aanu Zoboi, Yusef Salaam
New York Times and USA Today bestseller * 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 and is now available in paperback!
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.
Young Adult FictionArtComing of AgeDiversity & MulticulturalLaw & CrimeNovels in VersePeople & PlacesUnited States
RELEASED2021
PUBLISHERHarperCollins Publishers
LENGTH386
LANGUAGEEN
Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times Bestselling author of MY LIFE AS AN ICE CREAM SANDWICH (Penguin, 2019), her middle grade debut, and the Young Adult novels PRIDE (HaperCollins, 2018) and AMERICAN STREET (HarperCollins, 2017), a National Book Award Finalist and recipient of five starred reviews. She is also the editor of BLACK ENOUGH: STORIES OF BEING YOUNG & BLACK IN AMERICA (HarperCollins, 2019). Ibi 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, the Horn Book Magazine, and The Rumpus, among others. As an educator\, she is the recipient of several grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council for her community-based programs for teen girls in both Brooklyn and Haiti. She’s worked for arts organizations such as Teachers & Writers Collaborative and Community Word Project as a writer-in-residence and teaching artist in New York City public schools. She lives in Maplewood, New Jersey with her husband and their three children. ([source](http://ibizoboi.net/about)
