Concrete Kids

A Goddard CBC's Social Justice Prize Nominee - A YALSA Amazing Audiobook for Young Adults

I will close my eyes and disappear into the pages of this book for many years to come.--Hanif Abdurraqib (New York Times bestselling author of Go Ahead in The Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest)

Amyra's wondrous awe for life in all its terror and splendor is inspiring to witness.--Rosario Dawson (award-winning actor, singer, and activist)

A moving, inspiring love letter to and about 'the concrete kids. The kids with a melanin kiss.'-- Kirkus Reviews

Leon's powerful book will embolden readers find their own ways of speaking out against injustice. -- Booklist, Starred Review

A raw and complex free verse exploration of self-love, Blackness, womanhood, and healing. A timely, essential ­purchase for all young adult collections. -- School Library Journal, Starred Review

In Concrete Kids, playwright, musician, and educator Amyra León uses free verse to challenge us to dream beyond our circumstances -- and sometimes even despite them.

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists.

Concrete Kids is an exploration of love and loss, melody and bloodshed. Musician, playwright, and educator Amyra León takes us on a poetic journey through her childhood in Harlem, as she navigates the intricacies of foster care, mourning, self-love, and resilience. In her signature free-verse style, she invites us all to dream with abandon--and to recognize the privilege it is to dream at all.

Author: Amyra León
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Published: 10/13/2020
Pages: 96
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.30lbs
Size: 6.20h x 4.20w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9780593095195
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 08/01/2020 pg. 55
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2020
School Library Journal 12/01/2020 pg. 114

About the Author
Amyra León is an author, musician, playwright, and activist. Her work transcends genre and medium, and focuses on Black liberation, politics, and communal healing. She believes that the art of listening and honest conversation are the primary tools for lasting change. Her aim is to empower communities to believe in the significance of their individual stories. The conversation has just begun.

Ashley Lukashevsky is an illustrator and visual artist born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, currently based in Los Angeles. Ashley uses illustration and art as tools to strengthen social movements against systemic racism, sexism, and anti-immigrant policy. She aims to tear down these systems of oppression through first envisioning and drawing a world without them.

Her clients include Refinery29, Broadly, The Washington Post, Planned Parenthood, Girls Who Code, GOOD Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, ACLU, Red Bull, Snapchat, Air Jordan, and Logo TV.