Punching the Air

Description

Punching the Air

Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

(HarperCollins)

Amal was in the wrong place at the wrong time and now he’s doing time. He is wary of Clyde Richter, his defence lawyer, who will not declare his belief in Amal’s innocence. It seems that everything rests on the evidence of the victim, Jeremy Mathis, who remains unconscious in hospital. Meanwhile, Amal recalls his trial and feels the stones in his throat at his actions and the shame he is causing Umi.

Punching the Air is the verse prose collaboration from author Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam of The Exonerated Five- BBC Newsbeat Exonerated 5 Central Park Five. The horror of being found guilty for a crime you did not commit is revealed starkly in this title. Furthermore, the reality of ‘being inside’, from the lack of hope to the privations and hostility is brutal.

Readers will seek any spark of light for Amal, from the marker pens he smuggles into his prison overall, to the letters he receives from Zenobia. Most of all, we long for Jeremy Mathis to awaken, and for Amal’s defence to review his case. Amal, a boy of butterflies, dreams, words and lines, merits a life outside, beyond the confines of Ms Rinaldi’s rules. When Dr Kwesi Bennu leads the boys’s poetry class we are captivated, compelled and crushed by the truths…

Punching the Air is an outstanding YA novel for older, teen readers. The fact it is based on truths makes it more gripping, chilling and determined.