From award-winning 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. “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. Your teens will be moved by this stirring story in verse that incorporates street slang, Muslim faith, and hip-hop cadences, showcasing poetry’s power in language rarely seen in YA literature. Ages 14 and up. 400pp.