Others: Overwhelmingly positive The story that I thought was my life didn’t start on the day I was born Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white. The story that I think will be my life starts today Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it? With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip him of both. source: https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062996503/punching-the-air/
Genres: thriller, young adult, poetry
Lists: …
Elizabeth Acevedo
2018 · 361 pages · 12 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveXiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
What made the match, strongest first
Tiffany D. Jackson
2020 · 384 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Mostly positive"When legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots Enchanted Jones at an audition, her dreams of being a famous singer take flight. Until Enchanted wakes up with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night. Who killed Korey Fields? Before there was a dead body, Enchanted's dreams had turned into a nightmare. Because behind Korey's charm and star power was a controlling dark side. Now he's dead, the police are at the door, and all signs point to Enchanted"--
What made the match, strongest first
Tamara Ireland Stone
2015 · 356 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveConsumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off, a girl coping with Purely-Obsessional OCD learns to accept herself and take control of her life through her experiences in poetry club.
What made the match, strongest first
Neal Shusterman
2018 · 504 pages · 11 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveHUMANS LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES. I CANNOT. I MAKE NOT MISTAKES. The Thunderhead is the perfect ruler of a perfect world, but it has no control over the scythedom. A year has passed since Rowan has gone off grid. Since then he has become an urban legend, a vigilante snuffing out corrupt scythes in a trial by fire. His story is told in whispers across the continent. As Scythe Anastasia, Citra gleans with compassion and openly challenges the ideals of the "new order." But when her life is threatened and her methods questioned, it becomes clear that not everyone is open to the change. In the thrilling sequel to the Printz Honor Book Scythe, old foes and new enemies converge. And as corruption within the scythedom spreads, Rowan and Citra begin to lose hope. Will the Thunderhead intervene? Or will it simply watch as this perfect world begins to unravel? This description comes from the publisher. Thunderhead is the second book in the Arc of a Scythe, the first of which is Scythe.
What made the match, strongest first
Holly Jackson
2024 · 443 pages · 3 reviews
Others: Mostly positive18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness. Rachel is gone, presumed dead. The case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. But then Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again …
What made the match, strongest first
Tiffany D Jackson
2022 · 400 pages · 1 review
Others: NegativeWhen Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation... Maddy did it. An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington. After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life. But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret... one that will cost them all their lives.
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itthis is the story of a young black teen who is incarcerated for a crime he did not commit and finds hope in a way to survive through the power of art and poetry punching the air more like punching my heart it is one that really hits home and a story i feel everyone should experience
Loved iti'm going to put in not the greatest but still pretty great but it's definitely also on the higher end of that category
