Hi friends, happy Monday I hope you’re all doing well! Today I’m going to be posting my review of Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam’s novel Punching the Air.

Punching the Air by: Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam: Amal has always loved art and has considered himself an artist with his drawings and poetry. But even at his art school, it’s a biased system that sees him as unmotivated and troublesome. When he gets into an fight with another boy he gets convicted for a crime he didn’t commit. Filled with rage, he takes that anger and fuels it into his art. This novel spoke volumes on ‘boys being boys’ and how it differs from white boys to black boys. This was such a powerful story, novels in verse usually are; there’s just something about the way they transcend a reader. There is so much passion and raw emotion in poetry that prose just can’t quite pull off. This novel was no exception, from start to finish this novel was like a punch to the gut with how honest and open it was. The story was really well done, using the form of art and creativity to bring hope to young readers; not only did this novel mention and focus around art but it actually had amazing and such beautiful artwork drawn in to really encapsulate the story and immerse the reader, that really brought it all together. The characters were so well developed, flawed, yet hopeful. Overall, this was an intense and heartfelt story that really touched the reader.