Balzer + Bray

9780062996480

STARRED REVIEW

Punching the Air

Punching the Air is an intimate and moving portrait in verse of the realities and consequences of the school-to-prison pipeline.

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Review of ‘Punching the Air’

Prison is a box. Once a person is trapped inside, the box’s hard lines and confines become their entire world. The box presses down on the people it holds captive and tries to destroy what makes them unique, what makes them human, all in the interests of conformity, survival and the comfort of others. In…

Interview with Ibi Zoboi

In Punching the Air, National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi and activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five create an intimate and moving portrait of the realities and consequences of the school-to-prison pipeline. BookPage spoke with Zoboi and Salaam about the power of poetry, their book’s origin story and the message they hope it sends to young readers.

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