If I Told You So

The summer you turn sixteen is supposed to be unforgettable. It's the stuff of John Hughes movies and classic songs, of heart-stopping kisses and sudden revelations. But life isn't always like the movies. . . For Sean Jackson, sixteen is off to an inauspicious start. His options: take a landscaping job in Georgia with his father, or stay in his small New Hampshire hometown, where the only place hiring is the local ice cream shop. Donning a pink t-shirt to scoop sundaes for tourists and seniors promises to be a colder, stickier version of hell. Still, he opts to stay home. On his first day at work, Sean meets Becky, a wickedly funny New York transplant. The store manager, Jay, is eighteen, effortlessly cool, and according to Becky, "likes" Sean the way Sean's starting to like him. But before he can clear a path to the world that's waiting, Sean will have to deal with his overprotective mother, his sweet, popular girlfriend, Lisa, his absentee father, and all his own uncertainties and budding confusions. Tender and achingly funny, this coming-of-age story will resonate with anyone who is#8212;or has ever been#8212;a teenager, when the only thing you can count on is how little you really know, and the next glance, or touch, or breathless night can be the one that changes everything. . . "Woodward writes from the heart#8212;a genuine, honest story about the joys and pains of first love, and realizing that no one is as alone as it sometimes seems." #8211;Robin Reardon "A touching story about navigating the sometimes treacherous waters of first love."#8212;J.H. Trumble Timothy Woodward grew up in a small town in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where Saturday evening trips to the local ice cream shop were a town ritual. Later he moved to the city where he was a high school teacher and an advocate for GLBT youth with Greater Boston PFLAG, and where ice cream shops have been replaced by frozen yogurt stores. But Timothy still goes back to his hometown for their ice cream. His favorite flavor is, of course, Purple Cow Sean Jackson is sixteen and his choice is either to take a landscaping job in Georgia with his father, or to stay in his small New Hampshire hometown and take a job at the local ice cream shop. He stays home and deals with the pressures of a young man who struggles with trying to tell his father that he is gay