The American Booksellers Association's Children's Group recently announced it is launching a Virtual Reading Series for educators and students with authors Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam for their young adult novel Punching the Air.

According to Bookselling This Week, a newsletter and trusted source for independent booksellers, the series will mark the first event in ABA’s consumer-focused fall virtual reading program.

Watch! The Story Behind Punching the Air | with Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

ABOUT THE BOOK

Punching the Air is a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated.  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. Order a copy from We Are LIT!

BOOK CLUB

Through its membership with the American Booksellers Association, We Are LIT is excited to bring this Virtual Reading Series to its community of educators, students, and readers. During the series, "authors Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam will discuss their young adult novel, Punching the Air (Balzer + Bray), in hour-long talks moderated by Kathy Burnette of The Brain Lair bookstore in South Bend, Indiana."

Topics covered during the book club will include:

• My Punches Will Be My Paintbrushes — the importance of art for teens
• The criminalization of Blackness 
• The prison-industrial complex
• The emotional work of social justice

**Educator's guide available. Email info@wearelitgr.com

The month-long series is FREE, however those planning to attend must register!

Punching the Air Book Club: A Virtual Reading Series