The story follows Jamal, which means hope, through his court case and his incarceration in a juvenile detention centre. Jamal is an artist and poet and uses these to help himself during his time behind bars. The story is told in prose format and some of the poems are from when Yusef himself was incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit.
The narrator has a very soothing voice and does a great job getting the feeling behind the story across. Very inspirational for today and all that is happening. Great for fans of Jason Reynolds and Rupi Kaur.
#punchingtheair, #netgallyaudio, #indigoemployee

This book broke my heart and put it back together. Punching the Air is a beautiful novel written in prose. The reader’s rhythmic performance of this audio book entranced me as I listened to the powerful story of Amal. Ibi Zoboi’s ability to create images with metaphors allows the listener to be lost in the an unjust world where Amal is trying to survive. Amal’s survival depends on his poetry and art he creates to keep himself from going to understandably dark places. In a time with social unrest this novel gives connections to experiences people in this country face everyday. I recommend this to anyone with high school students trying to help them explore the world we are facing and anyone who enjoys a deeply poignant view of the world. Ibi Zoboi has done it again; created a masterpiece. Enjoy.

I was given a copy of the audiobook by netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

This reminded me a lot of The Sun Does Shine. Just more of a YA version about a teenager that was wrongly accused and sent to juvenile detention.

This book was told in verse which also made me think of The Poet X.

I feel this was a great book to open up the minds of teenagers about the injustices we still deal with.

Powerful yet devastating. Punching The Air is about the institutional racism and systematic oppression that kids of colors experience in school, trials, and even once they reach jail or prison. This book is so important, especially during these times as it's so relevant. It's written in verse so it's a quick read however, not an easy one in the least. Even when the world tries to throw you in a boxed description, there is a chance to break out and find purpose, hope, and art. It’s amazing how popular verse is becoming and that is manages to say so much in so little. Beautiful collaboration between Zoboi and Salaam, I hope they write more books together in the future.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Harper Audio for the advanced audiobook.

Black lives matter!
Wow. This book is a must read! Even if poetry isn’t your thing, you should give it a read or listen as I did. This story tells the story of a young black teen sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Telling the story through art and poetry is great. I thought the metaphors used were powerful and put things into perspective. The discussions that could and should come from this story need to happen.
Audiobook specific: I thought the narrator did a great job. His tone and the way he read the story made me fall in love with the story and feel for Amal’s character so quickly. That’s an important thing for a narrator to do. I highly recommend this!

This was heavy, obviously, and the writing was amazing - personally, I try to stick with listening to novel in verse, and I was so glad to get an audiobook ARC of this from Netgalley. The narration was really good, and the order in which the story was told was perfection. Because, despite being fiction, this was inspired by Yusef Salaam’s actual experience it felt so real - I had to remind myself that it was fiction, and I think anyone trying to see into other people’s lives should definitely pick this up. The author’s speak on hope in the authors’ note and it was beautiful and I’m glad they went into it with that in mind. I definitely recommend listening to the audio if you can.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eArc in exchange for an honest review.
What an absolutely heart-wrenching and timely book. Written in verse, Punching the Air shows the horrors of the prison industrial complex and the criminal justice system. The narration feels like it is Amal telling you his story, in turn making your heart ache even as you journey alongside him in a juvenile detention centre. It is candid, it is raw, and it is full of truth. If you choose to read one book for the latter half of 2020, make it this one. I hope to pick this up again physically to get the full effect of the poetry of this novel.

A powerful and moving novel told in verse, Punching the Air follows a Black teen boy who is wrongfully convicted of a violent crime and is sent to a juvenile facility. It offers a look at the injustices often present in the American criminal justice system, the ways that young people can be terrorized within juvenile detention centers, and the structural racism that forces them into silence and defensive behavior.

This is a novel filled with pain, but also with hope as the main character expresses himself through poetry and art. The novel becomes all the more poignant when you consider that one of the authors- Yusef Salaam- was himself wrongfully convicted of a violent crime as a teenager and served six years in prison before being exonerated. This won't take you long to read, but it will leave an impact and I would absolutely recommend it. The audiobook is beautifully done as well. I received an advance audio copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Content warnings include violence, bullying, police and prison guard brutality, racialized violence and slurs including multiple uses of ni**er.

5 BIG stars.

This story is very well told and beautifully written. I am not usually big on reading or listening to anything written in prose, but this story is in a league of its own. The storytelling is superb and I found myself being drawn into each verse of every chapter - and before I even realized it, I reached the end of the book. It’s a very quick listen, with many very short chapters.

The narration, done by Ethan Herrise, is phenomenal. I love the connection here, too, as Herrise actually played the younger version of Salaam in the Netflix series about him and the rest of the Exonerated Five called “When They See Us.” Herrise does an amazing job in the role of Amal and the way he reads it makes it sound like HE is actually Amal and he’s telling his own story. It’s one of the best audiobook narrations I’ve listened to in a while.

Thank you so much to Balzer + Bray for providing me with this ARC Audiobook in exchange for an honest review. And thank you to Ibi Zoboi and Yusuf Salaam for writing such an important, heartwrenching, yet beautiful story. I will definitely be reading this one in print a second time around just to re-experience it.

Wow! Punching the Air is an incredibly important and impactful YA novel. It reads like poetry and even includes written poetry from Yusef Salaam (of the wrongly incarcerated Central Park Five). The narrator does a beautiful job of bringing the story to life and reading each passage with the most jaw-dropping pacing. I cannot recommend this novel enough. It's timely with what's going on in the country and it is important for young readers to learn from this novel. I truly cannot recommend Punching the Air enough. Especially the audiobook.

Punching the Air is written by Ibi Zoboi (American Street) and Yusef Salaam (who at 15 was one of the 5 boys falsely accused and imprisoned for the rape of a woman in Central Park).

It contains poetry written by Yusef while he was in prison and is written in verse. I don't really know what to say but that it's completely heart-wrenching, particularly in context.

Ethan Herrise is the narrator for the audiobook and he has an incredible quality to his voice that is absolutely appropriate for a 16-year-old boy who is terrified and a bit jaded, but still hopeful.

I don't want to add a bunch of filler in this review so I'll leave it at this: this book is cathartic and beautifully written and should be read by anyone who can access it.

I received a copy of this audiobook for free from NetGalley and Harper Audio in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

5/5 Stars

** I was given this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review**

Moving, Lyrical, and relevant. That's how I would describe this book. I won't go into too much detail because I believe this is a book everyone should read or listen to. It's very reflective of how justice fails and puts an innocent behind bars. I did listen to this through audiobook format and the Narrator did a fantastic job bringing this book to life. This has that emotional punch for me because again it shows how racist and unfair the justice system is. They've already presumed someone guilty because of the color of their skin. I cannot do this book justice trying to describe it in words. I urge you to go and pick up this book on its release date. This is a story that is true all across the united states, and it needs to be heard.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I usually round down, but my only “critique” is that I personally am not a fan of flowery writing. I don’t want my personal opinion in writing style to being down the high average rating it deserves. This is my first novel in verse and though I don’t love poetry, I can’t imagine this book being written any other way. Especially after reading the author’s note mentioning that some of these poems were written by Salaam while incarcerated, which is so powerful. I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was much easier for me to connect with Amal and his experience while listening to it than I think I would if I had been reading the poetry.

I am at a loss for words for how incredibly important and eye opening this novel is. I have heard of YA novels dealing with police brutality, racism, and intersectionality, but this is the first I’m aware of that tackles incarceration of an innocent, black boy. I’m so glad that Zoboi wrote this in collaboration with Salaam to make it raw and authentic. I hope this continues to get the recognition it deserves and gets in the hands of as many people as possible.

Co-written with former teen prisoner and current prison reformer Yusef Salaam, Punching the Air is a novel-in-verse that explores how faith and art are Amal's saving graces when he is wrongfully incarcerated. Alongside is the brash co-message that the school-to-prison pipeline is destroying young African-American boys' lives. Thankfully for Amal, two mentors --one in art and one in human rights-- are present. But so are racist guards and violent inmates. Prison is hard, especially when Amal is innocent.

Author's note at the end is an excellent jumping-off point for those unsure of how to discuss the school-to-prison pipeline with teens.

It took me awhile to get into Punching the Air. I'm not sure if it was the inflection of the voice actor narrating the audiobook, if I was just not in the right headspace, or if I just wasn't paying close enough attention. Anyway it was, this is a heavy story that you can't pay attention to with only one ear. I think this will be an important story, but either it will be "popular" with teens like The Hate U Give or it will only be appreciated by adults who read YA. I don't think there is much middle ground.

Diverse reads:
- Amal is African-American and Muslim.

Read-alikes include Dear Justyce by Nic Stone and Monster by Walter Dean Myers.

This book is devastating yet stunning and invoked a deep anger in me. Telling a story like this takes courage and heart because it could not have been easy, especially for Yusef Salaam. I wish this wasn’t the reality for black children and black people. I’m just sad.

Stunning narration is featured in this truly timely and important story. I listened to it in one sitting. I don’t even really have more words for it than that. Essential reading...

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam is about a young man named Amal Shahid how gets wrongfully accused of a violent crime and sent to a juvenile detention facility. This story, written in verse, is about Amal and how he fights to maintain his sense of self and humanity in a prison that aims to break him. This story is loosely based on Yusef Salaam’s experience was one of the Central Park Five.

I received this audiobook as an advanced listening copy from Net Galley and Harper Audio in exchange for an honest review and honestly, I’m thankful I got to listen to this.

Books in verse are always hit or miss for me because poetry can be a more fluid art form that can leave more up to interpretation than prose can. This story was easy to follow but the ease of reading (or listening in my case) didn’t stop it from being deep and meaningful.

The narrator, Ethan Herisse, did a wonderful job and had a unique voice for all the characters. His cadence carried the intensity of the verse wonderfully and he helped me get lost in the story.

Amal was a great character because he was wonderfully in the middle. He wasn’t some perfect angel of a kid but on the other side of things he wasn’t some “bad kid” who always got into trouble. It could be said that Amal has a bad attitude. He has a problem with authority figures who don’t seem to believe in him and more than once his first instinct is to throw a punch. He’s a very realistic young man and I think it helps to show that this type of injustice can happen to anyone.

Punching the Air is very blunt about prison. Nothing graphic happens but there is violence against inmates, some of which obviously comes from a place of racism. But there’s also a few positive elements too like a kind guard, a friend Amal makes, and a poetry class that captures his attention. But the good stuff never once made prison look like anything other than an awful place. It just showed that Amal was finding ways to stay sane during it all.

This story has an important message. We need prison reform and we need to share stories about those who were wrongfully incarcerated as well as those who did commit a crime, but got harsher sentences due to the color of their skin, as well as addressing the treatment of prisoners.

Punching the Air is a wonderful book that tells an important story and it does so with a memorable main character and it’s written in a style that captured my attention from the first moment.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio for an advanced copy of this audio book!

I did not realize going into this book that Dr. Yusef Salaam was one of the Exonerated Five. When it was finished, I immediately looked into him, because while I recognized Ibi Zoboi's name, I didn't recognize his. I listened to the notes at the end (do this! read or listen to them!) and was struck that although Amal's story is not his story, it's based on his experiences.

Amal Shahid is a sixteen year old Black, Muslim boy falsely accused of putting a white boy into a coma after an altercation over neighborhood turf. The other boy can't testify as to what the actual events were, so Amal is found guilty of a crime he didn't commit and thrown into a juvenile detention center. He's a poet and an artist and a child, and we see how these things don't matter. He's an inmate number, a statistic, another Black boy handed to the system.

This was a quick listen, but it was not lacking. Every line of this written word book has meaning, and the visuals of some of the passages are absolutely stunning.

It's a reminder for all of us, I think, that the school to prison pipeline exists. The 13th Amendment was brought up here, and while the book didn't go into detail, it didn't need to. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, except in the case of prisoners. Prisoners are slaves. One out of every three Black boys today can expect to be sentenced to prison.

One out of every three Black boys today can expect to be sentenced to prison.

Slavery was not abolished, it was renamed. And Punching the Air reminds of us this - reminds us that the criminal justice system in the US is not fair or kind unless you are white, and especially if you are rich and white.

But more than these facts and figures, we get to see Amal. We may see their stories, but do we know these Black babies that are sent away? Do we know their stories? Amal write and paints and raps. He has a girl that he's crushed on since Freshman year. He's treated unfairly in school. He has a supportive family, supportive friends. He is not a 'bad' kid. He is not a 'thug'. He did not 'deserve it'. How many other children are made to put aside college choices and class schedules and arts class for crimes they either didn't commit, or crimes they're disproportionately punished for?

Read this book. Listen to it, like I did. The narrator is Ethan Herrise, who portrayed Dr. Salaam in the Netflix movie about the Exonerated Five - When They See Us. He does an excellent job, and if you're like me and you like to listen to your audio books sped up, I listened on 1.5 and it was perfect.

Required reading, friends.

<i>Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an advanced audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

A black boy falsely accused of a crime committed against a white peer. We've heard this story many times on the news and yet I doubt not even that coverage could fully represent how many times black boys have been thrown in prisons and forgotten, even if they haven't done anything wrong--or, even if they have done something wrong, perhaps they were punished for something a white person most likely would walk away from free.

This relatively quick read, written in verse format, is the epitome of "less is more": few words, yet every single word is loud, each holding the value of a thousand more words. Amal, who loves poetry and hip-hop, hence the novel being written in verse, will make your heart ache. He's angry and short-tempered, seeming to always get himself into difficult situations, but Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam so excellently delve into the systemic disadvantages that have led to Amal's incarceration. Because let's be real here: plenty of teenage boys get angry and find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time, but why is it that some get away with it, and others don't--or, worse, get blamed for the repercussions of someone else's anger? I think by now, especially with all highly-discussed current events, it's not hard to point out a few patterns.

I appreciated the combination of authors here, especially with Yusef Salaam, who first-hand experienced criminal injustice during the Central Park Five case. I also absolutely loved Ethan Herrise as the audiobook narrator. I thought he was engaging and realistic, and it truly felt like I was listening to Amal.

Overall, <b><i>Punching the Air</i> exceeded my expectations in every way possible and it is, hands down, a must-read.</b> This is one of the very few books I've read that quite literally gave me chills. And may I add, I put the physical book on hold at the library as soon as I finished the audiobook since I was so moved by it that I wanted to experience the story again, but in its original format? I'm sending my greatest thanks to anyone involved creating this book and getting it in the hands of others.

Oof was this emotional. There were multiple points in this story that I had to pause and step back because of how angry/sad/upset this story made me. The way Amal was treated both inside and outside of the prison system is so disgusting and to know that people and actual CHILDREN get treated like that is unacceptable. I’m glad there was at least one redeemable adult trying to help Amal throughout this situation because the other characters sucked!!!! The narrator of this really got the emotion and anger across that Amal was experiencing (rightly so) and made me feel so immersed in this story.