Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi (review)

Zoboi, Ibi Punching the Air; by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam. Balzer + Bray, 2020 [400p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780062996480 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780062996503 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 9-12

Inspired by the experiences of its co-author, one of the Exonerated Five of the Central Park attack, this free verse novel follows Amal as his junior year turns from art school with ambitions in painting and poetry to a juvenile detention center after a fight between Black and white teens leaves a white boy comatose in the hospital. Amal's friends took a plea but Amal went to trial and lost, and now he's learning the ways of the authoritarian management, ferocious sectarianism, and general oppression of imprisonment. That oppression has been dogging Amal as a Black Muslim boy all his life, and his poems, often titled in reference to art ("Guernica") or history ("Middle Passage"), document the way his normal kid behavior has been met for years with disproportionate response because of who he is. Amal's voice is often poetic and compelling ("I paint in wrong choices, regrets, and broken dreams"), and the details of life in NYC juvie, wherein choosing your battles is paramount, enrichment programs succumb to a depressing death, and letters from the outside are worth gold, are laceratingly vivid. It's an engaging and accessible read sure to provoke discussion, perhaps in conjunction with a factual exploration of Salaam's own experiences or in partnership with Myers' Monster (BCCB 5/99).