Review: Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

Blurb: Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in his diverse art school, because of a biased system he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated. Then, one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighbourhood escalates into tragedy. 'Boys just being boys' turns out to only be true when those boys are …

Review: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Blurb: Xiomara has always kept her words to herself. In her Harlem neighbourhood, her fists and fierceness do the talking. But X has secrets. Her feelings for a boy in her bio class, the notebook full of poems that she keeps under her bed - and a slam poetry club that will pull those secrets into …