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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSAmal Shahid is sixteen years old, a visual artist and poet who attends East Hills High School for the Arts in New York City. One night, a decision to go with his friend Omari instead of heading home leads him into a neighborhood confrontation between his group of Black and brown skaters and a group of white boys who have been claiming the local courts as their own turf. Amal throws the first punch, a fight breaks out, and a white teenager named Jeremy Mathis ends up severely beaten and in a coma. Amal is the one who goes to trial. The book opens the moment the jury delivers its guilty verdict, and everything that follows shows what it costs to be a teenager whose life gets swallowed by a system that made up its mind about him before he ever spoke.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Punching the Air
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Punching the Air. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book is a boy's art teacher called to be a character witness at his trial?
✓ Answer
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Ms. Rinaldi testifies as a character witness, seeing Amal in a suit and tie for the first time. He notes bitterly that it is the suit he was supposed to wear to art openings and prom instead.
- First half
In what book does an officer pull his hand back, causing a shackled boy to fall and break his face?
✓ Answer
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Officer Stanford offers his hand to help Amal off the bus, then yanks it away so the short chain trips him onto the ground. Amal feels his face split in half and cannot hold back the cry.
- First half
In what book is a loud, joking classmate dragged out of a jail classroom by two officers, kicking and cursing?
✓ Answer
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
When Kadon cracks jokes during Mr. Bradley's math lesson, officers seize him and haul him out as he kicks the furniture. Amal is glad his facial bruises serve as a mask while he tries not to look shaken.
- Second half
In what book does a boy claim his neighborhood has no butterflies, so nothing there can change?
✓ Answer
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
A guy on the block tells Amal about the butterfly effect, but Amal argues that they themselves are the butterflies and their actions are the wings.
- Second half
In what book does a boy pull "Being born" from a trash can as someone else's regret?
✓ Answer
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Dr. Bennu has each boy write a mistake, throw it in a bin, then pull out another's, and Amal reads a stranger's confession that being born was a mistake.
- Near the end
In what book does an uncle finally visit in a kufi and dashiki with a stack of books?
✓ Answer
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Uncle Rashon at last drives five hours to see Amal, brings him books by Baldwin and Morrison, and tells him they cannot lock down his mind.
