In 1974, fourteen-year-old Michael Davenport learns that life can change forever in the blink of an eye.
After losing his father to a sudden heart attack and his mother to breast cancer only months later, Michael finds himself adrift in a world that no longer feels like home. Forced to move in with his older sisters, Katie and Tricia, along with Katie's live-in boyfriend Walter and his younger brother Lamont, Michael struggles to find his place in a household already burdened with problems of its own.
At North Ridge Junior High School in Riverton, Kansas, Michael becomes withdrawn and angry, carrying a pain few of his classmates can understand. His only refuge comes from books, basketball, and dreams of Pamela Jenkins-the beautiful and popular cheerleader every boy in school admires.
Pamela seems completely out of reach.
Smart, kind, and admired by students and teachers alike, Pamela has everything Michael believes he lacks. Worse, she is dating Carlton Williams, North Ridge's star basketball player and the most feared bully in school. Carlton controls everything around him, including Pamela's social life, and he makes it clear that Michael should stay away.
When a mandatory history project unexpectedly pairs Michael and Pamela together, the two discover they have more in common than either imagined. As late-night study sessions turn into heartfelt conversations, Pamela begins to see beyond Michael's quiet exterior and discovers a young man fighting to survive overwhelming loss.
For the first time since his parents' deaths, Michael begins to heal.
But love has a price.
When rumors about their growing relationship spread throughout North Ridge Junior High, Carlton launches a campaign of intimidation designed to destroy Michael's reputation and force Pamela back into his control. Caught between popularity and her heart, Pamela must decide whether she is willing to risk everything for the boy she truly loves.
As friendships are tested, families fractured, and secrets revealed, Michael and Pamela discover that first love is never easy-but sometimes it is exactly what saves us.
Set against the backdrop of small-town America during the 1970s, Teach Me How to Love is a heartfelt coming-of-age story about grief, hope, courage, and the healing power of young love.
