Essay

This powerful YA verse novel, by award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and activist Yusef Salaam, explores the story of a boy who is wrongfully imprisoned.

On a fateful night, an altercation in a neighborhood undergoing a transformation escalates into tragedy. The phrase "boys will be boys" seems to apply only when those boys are white. Suddenly, at just sixteen, Amal Shahid’s bright future is overturned: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison.

Despair and rage nearly drown him until he turns to the salvation offered by his words and his art. This shouldn’t be his story. But can he change it?

With mesmerizing lyricism, the authors tell a poignant and profound story about how a boy can maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip it away.

Pages: 400, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm