by Christine McFaul
Punching the Air is a stunning, contemporary YA novel co-written by best-selling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist, Yusef Salaam, of the Exonerated Five. Drawing on Salaam’s life experiences, it tells the story of sixteen-year-old Amal Shahid—artist, poet, and free-thinker—whose life is derailed when an altercation amongst teens in a gentrifying neighbourhood ends with a white youth in a coma.
Amal, who is Black and Muslim, must now defend himself,
because where I come from
jail or death
were the two options…handed to us
because where he comes from
the American Dream
was the option…handed to them
It does not matter that Amal is innocent. He is convicted of a crime he did not commit and sent to prison. There, despair and anger threaten to overwhelm him, but love, community, and self-expression through art keep his mind free.
Amal's story unfurls in verse. Zoboi’s powerful lyricism is amplified by subtle and brilliant textual choices. The unique presentation of words on the page, shifting, scattering, grouping again, and interspersed with illustrations, mimic the effect of thoughts flowing through Amal’s mind. When combined with the first-person point of view, it makes the reader's experience of the narrative powerfully intimate and deeply personal. The absence of any period punctuation marks enables the flow and emphasizes where question marks are used, creating full stops where the reader must slow down and consider the importance of questions being posed.
Why me? Why us?
Intelligent and self-aware, Amal provides the answers through an incisive unmasking of cultural and social systems. From a media that shapes him and his friends into “thugs hoodlums men” while the white and racist teenagers who incited the fight are “having fun loved…full of potential boys” to the sinister injustices of a supposed justice system where for Amal, “it’s guilty until proven innocent” the rush from “kid to criminal to felon to prisoner to inmate” greased by years in a “Prison Prep” school system, and ending with his entry into the modern prison system inextricably linked to slavery through the 13th Amendment.
so when you did…
whatever they think you did
your life…belongs to them
Line by line Amal’s exposition manifests the stifling confinement felt at the intersection of so many deeply biased systems.
Pressing
down on me
on us
so hard
that the weight
of the world
made us crack
split in half
And yet, Amal’s character rises, and love emerges as a powerful theme in this story. The rumination on its many, varied forms permeates the text throughout. In the form of family, friends, and community, their love an affirmation, “like Grandma’s needle and thread to fix me and put me back together again”. In gorgeously soft moments of introspection,
My umi’s face is
the most beautiful in the world
Skin
like sleeping in on snow days
beneath thick blankets
black
Amal’s character at times uses words, and at times art to give outward expression to this exploration of love. With a crayon and paper “this little bit of freedom in my hands” the story culminates in an unforgettable last line "My truth” and the story ends with the hopeful act of Amal telling the world who he is on his own terms, through his art.
Punching the Air is gutting and uplifting. I recommend that every teenager read this book before finishing high school. It is a timely and compelling example of the power of, and absolute necessity for, more #OwnVoices stories.
*If you would like to find more children’s books by #OwnVoices authors/illustrators, the FOLD organization is an excellent resource for Canadian content/talent.
FOLD Kids Promoting diverse Canadian children’s literature
@FoldKids (on Instagram and Twitter)
**If you are interested in reading more on the need for more representation and diversity in the publishing industry, The New York Times opinion piece by Richard Jean So & Gus Wezerek “Just How White is the Book Industry,” published December 11, 2020, is a great place to start.