My bomber jacket came off the shoulders of an addict who couldn’t buy what she needed with money. It meant renting a room in our Harlem neighborhood, wearing the flyest kicks around, and, thanks to his new occupation as a 17-year-old drug dealer, offering me the single best clothing item I owned as a teenager. And when old friends try to pressure him into an unthinkable act, his father in prison-locked away but not absent-counsels the teenager on how a “real” man comes to a decision: not by succumbing into the demands of the street but instead by weighing the cost to those he loves most.īut what does it mean to be a man? For my brother Lindo, back in the ’90s, it meant throwing a fist to protect Mami against our stepfather, only to find himself flung to the streets. Wyatt, offers him a job, a different way to live. When he is faced with the financial pressures that come with giving up dealing, the neighborhood market owner, Mr. On finding out about her son’s new situation, Maverick’s mother is tough but supportive. He'll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.Here, a familiar story of violence and poverty takes an important turn. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can't just walk away. In a world where he's expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he's different. So when he's offered the chance to go straight, he takes it.

But it's not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he's a father. Life's not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav's got everything under control.

With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad's in prison. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. If there's one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it's that a real man takes care of his family. International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood.

Concrete rose angie thomas