
Punching the Air
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Narrated by:
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Ethan Herisse
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. Perfect 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, he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. 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's bright future is upended: he 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.
©2020 Ibi Zoboi (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
A Conversation with Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam, and Ethan Herisse On Bringing Amal's Story to Life
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A Conversation with Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam, and Ethan Herisse On How This Work Remains Hopeful
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Through the difficulties lived by the protagonist, the poetic voice finds a way for art, faith, hope and freedom.
What should we do when facing inequalities? what should we do when faced with a broken system?
For a reader coming from developping countries, these are not uncommon questions, but the answers are yet to be shared.
Freedom can't be boxed
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Incredible. Get it.
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Really engaging and fast moving.
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Heartrending
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Good book young teens!!
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a Story for the Soul
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I highly recommend *listening* to (or, reading aloud) Zoboi’s and Salaam’s gorgeous, lyrical beauty.
The story is, unfortunately, far too rote for anyone paying attention to the (in)justice (mis)educational systems in America, so as with almost all of my favorite pieces of art—written and recorded—it’s far less about the plot than it is about the way their words inhabit the page, on both a visually aesthetic level, but also on a mellifluous, rhythmic one.
The imagery, the images, the imagination of it all.
Heartbreaking. Heart-rending. Hard to not wince and wonder and well up with weariness (at yet another tale as old as American time) and cries for war (against these systems of oppression).
Read it. Listen to it. Learn it. Know it. Understand it.
Then, *do* something about it.
This, my friends, is #artasactivism
To Be Heard and Seen
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The Turth
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Amazing story.
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Loved this young man’s passion and perspective. Great read!!!
Spectacular
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