Review – Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

I picked Punching the Air out of the great selection on the e-library as part of Black History Month 2023.  I started in October but only listened to 5 minutes, because I wasn’t ready for it. I’m glad I gave it the time needed. A month later, I picked it up again and listened non stop from beginning to end.

My Thoughts on hope

Still thinking this over, whether it’s a 3 or 4. But while I’m still pondering, I can say that hope is underrated. Without it, despair is making your life a misery. Listening to this – the narrator was great by the way, make me think about the importance of words, what is said, how it’s said and also perceived.

When is a group of boys a gang, rather than a club or a gathering?

When is it alright for some and not for other?

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time shouldn’t have such dire consequences

Amal is in the wrong time at the wrong place which he admits, but that doesn’t stop him from being sentenced for a crime he didn’t commit. I still don’t get how we had to await the victim coming out of the coma to get an accurate picture of what happened. Who testified? How is one person’s word more valued than another?

The brutality of prison

Punching the Air, shows the brutality of a juvenile detention centre, the lengths inmates have to go to survive and the importance of having support, someone believing in you. Knowing your self worth, raising your self esteem is essential armour to withstand the blows of injustice.

The limitations of recompense

Compensation is a must, nevertheless, nothing will bring back the time spent in wrongful incarceration. Yet the admission of wrong doing, of guilt, bias is a small step in easing that bitter gall.

My mind’s made up, it’s 4 stars

To find out more about Yusef Salaam and his personal story about wrongly miscarriage of justice read here