Everything you need to understand or teach Don't Call It Paradise by Gayle Pearson.
Don't Call It Paradise deals with a young girl's summer crush and her realization that appearances can be deceiving. Thirteen-year-old Maddie travels to San Francisco to visit her best friend, Beanie, who recently moved with her family from the Illinois neighborhood where the two girls grew up. Maddie has always loved Beanie's family—idolized them in fact—and her mixed feelings about Beanie's "bad boy" brother Buddy quickly escalate into a crush.
Buddy had been a troublemaker, Maddie knew, and she knew that he and Beanie had always been at odds; Beanie always claimed that Buddy was cruel to her and that her parents placed her brother on a pedestal and left her feeling inadequate and unloved.
When Maddie arrives in San Francisco, Buddy appears to have changed. He is sixteen now and adorable, and Maddie finds herself falling for him and thrust into the midst...
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