ARC, 386 pages
Release Date: September 1, 2020
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Read from: August 26-28, 2020
Stand-alone
Source: Publishers
TW: Wrongful incarceration, use of the n word, School to prison pipeline, mass incarceration
For fans of: Novels in Verse, Social Justice, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary, YAFrom award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. Perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds, Walter Dean Myers, and Elizabeth Acevedo.
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.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Normally when I read a novel in verse I can read it in one day. This took me two days, almost 3 because I kept reading and re-reading parts of this over and over. And then I wrote so many different passages from this in my quote notebook…. You all just have to read it and see why it’s so good.
“Umi told me to wear a gray suit./ because optics/ But that gray didn’t make me any less Black./ My white lawyer didn’t make me any less Black.”pg.
Amal is convicted of assault. And before he could even make it home, he is caught by the police and taken in to custody. He maintains his innocence, is found guilty, and sent to prison. While there, he loses his joy, but he fights tooth and nail to get it back.
“Rage is a deadly feeling.”pg. 41
The writing style in this was amazing. Not only were the quotes good, but the way they wrote them was also amazing. For example, there was one poem that talked about a box that had the shape of a box. It was definitely a very creative story and I really liked it.
“On the day of my conviction/ I memorize/ my inmate number/ my crime/ my time./ On the day of my conviction/ I forget/ my school ID number/ my top three colleges/ my class schedule.”pg. 79
As for the rating, I took one half star off because I wasn’t particularly satisfied with the ending. I wanted to see what that one person said. I think it would have benefited from telling what they said. Especially if they took the time to say that [SPOILER] he had woken up. [END SPOILER]
“My dear Amal-/ The only way to survive hell/ is to walk through.”pg. 160
Although verse isn’t my favorite because I don’t always feel like I get to know the characters really well, I did enjoy this one. I felt like it was very telling, not showing. But that could be the effect of a novel in verse. Again, I’m not a usual fan of novels in verse, but this one was good.
“We were / a mob/ a gang/ ghetto/ a pack of wolves/ animals/ thugs/ hoodlums/men. / They were/ kids/ having fun/ home/ loved/ supported/ protected, full of potential/ boys.”pg. 202
This book tells about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. It speaks of many important issues that are so relevant today. I can’t wait to recommend this to my teens!
Overall, I give this,
