Punching the Air
Record details
- ISBN: 9780063025707
- ISBN: 0063025701
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Physical Description:
electronic resource
remote
1 online resource : digital - Edition: Unabridged.
- Publisher: [S.I.] : Balzer + Bray, 2020.
Content descriptions
Participant or Performer Note: | Read by Ethan Herrise. |
Search for related items by subject
Genre: | Young adult fiction. Downloadable audio books. Audiobooks. |
Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
- AudioFile Reviews : AudioFile Reviews 2020 September
Narrator Ethan Herisse's voice is soft, slow, and sombre as he narrates the poignant free-verse poems of the fictional character Amal Shahid. Herisse's tone is so tender that one can imagine the sensitive shapes and perfect rhythms drawn and written by this 16-year-old artist-poet before he was incarcerated. Amal and his friends have been arrested for assault after a run-in with racist white boys. Herisse expresses Amal's passion for creativity and how it helps him endure beatings and solitary confinement. The story was co-created by award-winning YA author Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam, a prison reform activist. Both poets shine in every word. Together, the verses build and deepen as Herisse emphasizes the earnestness of Amal's efforts to hold onto hope. A gripping, powerful listen for teens and adults from the opening to the authors' note at the end. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine - Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2020 October #2
What a striking confluence here: National Book Award finalist Zoboi's co-writer, Salaam, was one of the Exonerated Five. Debut narrator Herisse portrayed the teenage Salaam in Ava DuVernay's acclaimed dramatization of the aftermath of the Central Park jogger attack, When They See Us, and here gives voice to Zoboi and Salaam's timely, haunting collaboration. With careful, thoughtful precision, Herisse embodies the novel in verseâa lyrical rendering of horrific events. At 16, Amal Shahid is both an artist and poet. An accusation of assault gets him arrested; his Blackness and the other boy's whiteness gets Amal convicted. Wrongfully incarcerated, Amal must quickly learn to survive. Tentative friendships, a caring educator from the outside, and literary packages help to save his life. In the ending "A Note from the Authors," Zoboi reveals the authors' meeting at Hunter College in 1999 (two years after Salaam's release), and that while this is not Salaam's story, "Amal's character is inspired by him as an artist and as an incarcerated teen who had the support of his family, read lots of books, and made art to keep his mind free." Grades 9-12. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.