Thank you to Tina at HarperCollins Children for gifting me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
Goodreads synopsis
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?
Review
This book is truly a masterpiece that everyone needs to read.
Written in verse, Punching the Air is a beautifully lyrical yet devastating story about a young boy who is found guilty for a crime he didn't commit. It's an eye-opening look at how the American Judicial and prison system treats and fails those of a different race.
I ended up devouring this book in a couple of hours and found it absolutely impossible to put down. You can tell how much emotion and thought went into it and it's easy to pick out parts that were influenced by Yusef Salaam's own experiences in jail for when he was wrongly convicted. This makes the story told so much more realistic and it breaks my heart that people are going through this every day and suffering because of the colour of their skin.
This book is one of my favourites of 2020. It's dark, it's passionate but most of all it's real. It's hard to put into words how much this book impacted me and how it is going to be a story that lives with me forever.
I could sit here and talk about this book for hours but that would take away from you reading it for the first time. You need to go on Amal's journey, feel his pain and how strong he is no matter what is thrown at him. You need to feel the heartbreak, the doubt and the damaging way one decision can change a person's life based on the colour of their skin.
If you pick up one book the rest of the year make sure it's Punching the Air.
Rating: 5/5 stars