Because such abuse is an issue that many children face daily and because there are so many other important issues worthy of study and discussion in the novel, I would use it in a high school English classroom. This problem novel could be used in a unit on helping students develop an internal locus of control. Students need to understand that they can assume responsibility for protecting themselves and for taking actions to shape and reshape their lives. His family discourages the relationship because she is not of their class. Skye is a wealthy girl who lives in Beauregard, a lavish estate on the ocean.
Buddy is from a less fashionable area in New York and from a plain lower-middle class family.
Buddy, because of these class differences, goes to every effort to impress Skye. Buddy purchases new clothes and even takes her to see his estranged grandfather. His grandfather, Frank Trenker, is his only rich relative and by taking Skye there, Buddy betrays his mother. Buddy's mother was raised by her German immigrant mother because her father, Mr. Trenker, had abandoned them many years ago. Buddy, Skye, and Trenker become close, sharing many things with one another.