Pearson's novel deals with relationships— between friends, between siblings, between boyfriends and girlfriends, and between parents and their children. All these, relationships are ones that teenagers struggle to understand and maintain. Pearson highlights different kinds of relationships by drawing contrasts between them. Dennis and Marie relate much differently toward Buddy than they do toward Beanie, for instance, and Maddie relates much differently toward her parents than the McBean children do toward theirs. It is important that Maddie learn what she wants and needs out of her relationships, and living in a home where the dynamics among family members differ drastically from her own, she is able to determine what brings satisfaction and what creates unrest. At the beginning of the novel Maddie is dissatisfied with her parents, but by the end she has reevaluated the relationship.....
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