Literature Break: Concrete Rose

I recently read Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas. The main character, Maverick, was the father in The Hate U Give, and Concrete Rose was his backstory. This was a wonderful book. This story was not as plot heavy as The Hate U Give, but it was an important story nonetheless.

We followed Maverick through gang life and drug dealing, teenage fatherhood, struggling in school, and poverty. Throughout the book, it felt like Maverick couldn’t catch a break. And so many kids can’t. At the end of the day, he was a 17 year old who had to grow up to soon because of things he chose to do because he did not see any other way. His relationship with his neighbor, Mr. Wyatt, had such a beautiful evolution. Mr. Wyatt showed Maverick that there was more to life than his gang, and even though Maverick didn’t always want to hear it, this relationship changed him. In this, Maverick was lucky. There are so many kids who need a Mr. Wyatt in their life .

I see my students in Maverick; the kids who think they have no choices, or that they are who society dictates instead of who they want to be. The kids who struggle in school because they’re of all they’re going through outside of school. If anything, a book like this shows the importance of reading literature and representation. Literature is not only about literary elements and analysis. People read in the hopes of finding someone or something to relate to, and in the creation of Maverick, Thomas gives voice to these young men’s struggles.

The title of the book, taken from Tupac’s poem “The Rose That Grew From the Concrete,” also reminds me of the first year teaching, when I tried to teach my students about this poem in hopes of finding something to interest them. I did not do the best job. I must have seemed naive or out of touch. But I did try. And I think of those kids when I hear of this poem. Several of them, like Maverick, were stuck in cycles of poverty, abuse and systemic racism. I don’t know what happened to many of them, but I hope that like in the poem, and like Maverick, they still found a way to flourish.